Children’s Literacy
By: Ciara Clark, Lauren Velez, Krista Brockman, Leslie Caamal, Aireana McDade
A stronger, safer, more sustainable community begins with an educated population. Assisting others with literacy we can break the cycle of poverty, elevate workforce skills, and improve your quality of life.
Reading aloud with your child is a simple, free, and easy step to improving their literacy rates. The act of reading aloud promotes emerging literacy, language and brain development, and supports the relationship between you and your child. Improving literacy rates in the Whittier community is a step towards a healthier, educated community.
Free local resources!
There are several free resources that are readily available for families who want to improve their literacy. These resources also pay attention to the different learning styles that people have and they are open to working with the children and families in developing methods that would benefit them.
The Whittier Public Library
This is an outstanding local resource for families and children to get involved with the community. The library holds several events throughout the month that are free of charge. The events can range from brain games club to pajama storytime. They will even have events where you can meet the author of a children’s novel, these events are free to attend. Attending these events is significant when it comes to children’s literacy because if the child can be excited about reading, or events that have to do with reading, they are more likely to be avid readers who want to read further. In the library people are welcome to approach the help desk and ask about the events they have for the month. There is a calendar for every month listing what is offered.
An event that the library is trying to implement in preschools across the Whittier area is the 1,000 Books Before Kindergarten. The goal of this program is to help a child learn to read long before the child starts kindergarten. Any child from birth to enrolling for kindergarten can participate in the early literacy program. This event is crucial in early children’s literacy since it also involves the family of the child. The families can go to the library and simply share a book, sing the book together, talk to their child about the pictures, read a book cover to cover, or any way that will benefit the child. This event is aware of the different learning styles that children have and they work with different learners. The library is heavily stressing how important it is to promote literacy from a very early age so children and families can be excited about reading.
Whittier Area Literacy Council
“The mission of the Whittier Area Literacy Council is to build a stronger, more literate community by connecting those who can help with those who need it the most.”
President of the Whittier Area Literacy Council, Patricia Almada explained that the council offers free tutoring for children and adults. Each tutor has to have ten hours of training before teaching. The council is free of charge, one-on-one tutoring, allows for flexible scheduling, and is completely confidential. The tutoring is only open to adults, and children 3rd grade and up. The literacy council will hold family literacy nights which is the only mandatory event when they are being tutored. Family literacy nights talk about varying topics like digital citizenship to how to talk to your child about sex. Free child care and food is provided to assist parents who want to attend the event.
It does not matter what level the student begins at, what matters is the progress that the student will achieve at the end of his or her tutoring sessions.
President Almada mentions how students, particularly the children, are not the most enthusiastic when going to tutoring at first, but once they experience that success, they want to come back all the time. “Later on as they see their test scores going up and they see that they can complete projects… they see that I can get good grades, I can achieve, then they love coming” Ms. Almada shared with us. Obviously, progress takes time but to see the success of a student achieving is priceless.
The Whittier Area Literacy Council has had the support of the community, whether that is through private donations, grants, or other local organizations, and it is easy to see why. If you are interested in learning more, you may contact them at 562–698–6598 or at walcread@gmail.com
Helpful links
Families and children can work on literacy anywhere they go! Improving your literacy is not limited to a classroom setting. Simply walking around outside and spelling out various objects is working on literacy. Parents involvement in their children’s lives is crucial in improving their literacy. Looking through websites for tips and tricks is useful, the real change will be when you can sit down with your child and read with them or to them.
