Westwood Elementary Immerses Students in Books with Read to Be Ready

Published June 20, 2017

Students from Fairview Elementary and Westwood Elementary schools are gathering at Westwood during the month of June as the school hosts Read to Be Ready.

Read to Be Ready is a grant program through the state that pays for books and the teachers to meet with students in rising grades 1-3 through the summer. The teachers choose the books to read to the kids, and then base the activities on the books they’ve chosen. At the end of it all, the students get to take the books home.

“Students need both skills and strong motivation to learn to read and write well,” said FES Literacy Interventionist Eileen Brogan. “The goal of this program is to instill a love of reading and writing. We want the kids to think of books as some of their most prized possessions.”

The students in the program are divided into groups of five with one instructor each. This lets the students get more one-on-one time with their teachers.

This year, Read to Be Ready is happening at Westwood Elementary from June 5-29. The theme for each of the weeks is aligned with the Fairview ONE Camp happening at Fairview Middle School. The students in the Read to Be Ready program visit FMS on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons to join in on the fun.

The fun themes and the exciting field trips and activities help motivate the students to want to read, which is the whole goal of the Read to Be Ready program.

“Reading is a difficult skill for some of our kids, and they need to want to do it,” Brogan said. “Read to be Ready is all about the ‘want to’ piece.”