Locals put in their time for Million Minute Read

Photo courtesy of Shona Foster, JLA


By Jennifer L. Johnson - news@onlineathens.com
Published Monday, March 15, 2010

The kids weren't as curious about what Morgan Carden was doing in their prekindergarten classroom as they were about the story she was going to tell.

"They were 4 and 5 years old, and mostly they just wanted to hear me read," Carden said.

Junior League members across the state are going into prekindergarten classrooms to try to read 1 million minutes by April to celebrate Georgia enrolling its millionth child in lottery-funded pre-K programs.

The local women started logging minutes at the beginning of the year and contributed to the state Junior League groups reaching their Million Minute Read program goal.

"I think that it was an attainable goal, with all 12 Junior Leagues (in Georgia) going for it," said Shona Foster, president of the Junior League of Athens and a media specialist at Whitehead Road Elementary School.

Foster helped arrange some of the readings by talking to librarian friends and working with pre-K teachers to schedule volunteer readers.

The U.S. Department of Education recommends that parents read to their children at least 20 minutes a day, but some parents might not have that kind of time, according to Foster. She's hoping the volunteer readers can help fill in for busy parents.

"We're going to keep reading because it's so important," Foster said.

The group is focusing specifically on youngsters in Athens-Clarke, where more than 700 children are enrolled in pre-K.

About 90 percent of brain development takes place before age 5, and being read to frequently prepares the child for kindergarten, according to Brigham Young University's School of Education.

"I think that reading to children is one of the most important things that allow their brains to develop," said Carden, a former teacher and the director of Champions for Children childhood development center in Athens. "To me, reading to kids in the community was just one other way to support that."

Carden read Dr. Seuss books to students at Howard Stroud Elementary and Winterville Elementary schools before the late author's birthday March 2.

The kids talked after the stories about rhyming words, which tied into teachers' lesson plans.

The readers also demonstrated other valuable lessons.

Barrow Elementary pre-K teacher Kelly Hocking had been talking to her students about helping other people, so when Junior League member Jo Boling came into the classroom to read, she told the kids about how her group volunteers its time.

"It really made a connection to them about what we'd been talking about," Hocking said. "The kids get excited when anybody steps into our room, but it's that much more important when they can say, 'Wow, this visitor has come to read to us.' It makes the kids want to be readers."

Studies show children who are read to learn to read earlier than those who are not, according to the National Literacy Trust.

Junior Leaguers may continue to read in classrooms as a long-term community service project, according to Foster. The group also is working to provide age-appropriate books for each child in pre-K classes in Athens - roughly 750 books. So far, the group has reached about 25 percent of its goal.

The league posted a book wish list on its Web site, www.juniorleagueofathens.org, and collects book donations at its headquarters at the Taylor-Grady House on Prince Avenue. The group also is taking monetary donations online, which will help pay for books from weRead.com for students in Clarke County schools.