Posted: 3:53 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2015

Mentor reading program underway in Middletown schools

By Rick McCrabb

Staff Writer

MIDDLETOWN — 

    About 100 community members gathered Tuesday to read to Wildwood Elementary School students as part of the district’s MENTORead Program, said Carolyn Mack, director of staff development.

    The goal, she said, was to “develop good readers” by having the students listen as books are read to them in small groups for one hour. This Middletown City School District project was introduced at the district’s business partner meeting late last year.

    It’s important for young students to learn “what a good reader sounds like,” Mack said.     She said reading expands students’ vocabulary even if they don’t understand the words.

    Mack said after the reading program, each student will receive one free book. She hopes as the students return to their classes, they will share what they learned with their classmates. She said 95 percent of what people learn they hear from someone else.

    In October, Mack, a member of the Dayton Chapter of Links, a women’s organization, participated in a volunteer reading program at Madison Park Elementary School in the Trotwood-Madison School District. Since it was the organization’s 65th anniversary, the members pumped $65,000 back into the community and held a reading program that attracted 55 volunteers readers, 10 short of the goal.

    Mack addressed a group of community and business leaders in December asking them to participate in a similar program in the Middletown district. Her goal is to have 100 volunteers read to kindergartners, first- and second-graders on Tuesday. She called the response from community volunteers and business partners “overwhelming.”

    Superintendent Sam Ison said the program will create relationships with students and demonstrate to them that “reading is a priority.” He said some students in the district don’t have anyone reading to them outside the classroom.

    He called reading “the foundation behind everything that we do. Reading leads to writing, which leads to everything creative that we do.”

    Anyone interested in participating in the program is asked to call Gracie Gregory, administrative secretary, at 513-423-0781, ext. 2665.

 This is a good thing...