Actually, Read by 3rd does not directly help students read. We are working on bringing back our community’s focus on the parents. Given the fact a child will spend more than 70 percent of his or her time at home; we must focus on the parents/families. Without the parental piece we are not going to achieve the education standards we are expecting our schools to perform. Studies show that parents are the most influential persons in the child’s life.
Since schools are education/child centric, there is a need to build value added relationship between community leaders, teachers and administrators, and families. Bryan-College Station has numerous and diverse individuals and organizations that strive to make the community a better place. Read by 3rd seeks to improve the community through use of a well-established model known as Facilitators of Relationships.
Facilitators of Relationships are trained to create value-added relationships between individuals, groups and organizations for the purpose of solving problems. They focus on creating “safe places” where all those involved can engage with one another in a trust-filled, respectful and nonjudgmental manner.
Studies have concluded that if students do not read at grade level by third grade, they have only a 20 percent chance of catching up and are four times more likely than their peers to drop out or fail to graduate high school. Reading is a fundamental requirement to success. There isn’t anything that we do today, that does not require reading (e.g. driving, banking, and voting).
It’s understood, that the basic foundation of any society is the family unit. A child’s nutrition, health, conduct, attitudes and perspectives toward education and life is related directly to the family environment. Parents remain the most important influence in a child’s education. Parents are the first educator.
Concerted cultivation is when a parent/guardian of a child makes the time and effort to engage the children with stories, reading and other language intensive activities. Research confirms that children whose parents are involved have heard 30 million more words by the time they enter kindergarten than children whose parents have not been similarly engaged.
Read by 3rd helps transform the parents’ vision of themselves and their children by providing the parents with the skill sets and resources to help their children. Read by 3rd provides access to educational, recreational, and community opportunities.
Many people believe it takes a community to raise a child. We believe it’s essential for parents to know that the community has many organizations that can assist parents by teaching those skills sets to improve the family unit. Our Community Partners make presentations at our meetings, assist Read by 3rd with funding, external event participation, awareness and supplying meeting locations. We all believe in “Building Successful Families”.
For a list of our Community Partners and donators, see “Sponsors” under “About Us”.
Volunteers are the Read by 3rd parent’s support system and help build relationships with parents, child(ren) and teachers. Volunteers also assist in raising monies needed to support the monthly meetings and educational/recreational events. Volunteers are assisting in expanding the program to other schools and districts, as well as activities such as “Learning English”.
The parents commit themselves to agreements that include reading and telling stories to their children, providing a quiet place and time for their children to read, study, engage in educational activities at home, and become more mindful of how they communicate with their children. Parents are required to sign an agreement to commit to attending meetings, creating a learning environment at home, meet their child(ren)’s teachers, encourage their child(ren), etc.
There is a budget of $16,000/year for the three pilot elementary schools. This covers babysitting, participating in educational/recreational events, food, and supplies (paper, etc.) for meetings. Parents who have participated in Read by 3rd Program now want the program to expand into other schools within the Bryan ISD. Volunteers are working to expand the program to College Station ISD. With the expansion ideas the budget will need to grow exponentially and so will the donations/fundraising activity.
To donate, please go to the “Donate” button and fill in the form. You will have to print and mail the form to Bryan ISD. These donations are designated for use by the Read by 3rd Program only.
In the past 2 years that the program has been in place, the participants (parents and child(ren)) have visited:
The Texas A&M Corps of Cadets during Aggieland Day,
toured the Brazos Valley Museum of Natural History,
attended an OPUS performance at Texas A&M University,
attended a Texas A&M Men’s Basketball game, and
marched in Bryan’s Fiestas Patrias waving American Flags behind the Aggie Band.
All of these activities have broadened the participant’s knowledge of what’s available in the community and given insight into a college campus.
Daniel Hernandez presented the Read by 3rd Theme and Nacio Concepts.
Dr. Kim Arredondo, Psychologist
Dr. Jorge Gonzalez, Texas A&M University
Project Unity showed a video on parenting skills.
Teachers have presented strategies for parents to use with their child(ren) when they read together (e.g. visualizing – can you describe in your own words what the setting might look like?; prior knowledge – from the title, what do you think this story might be about?).
Teachers have presented DRA (Developmental Reading Assessment) and TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills) to give the parents an understanding of when these are done and how they are used.