Our Newest Program: CLiF’s Year of the Book
Left to right: CLiF’s Duncan McDougall, Catherine Kidder, CLiF’s Suzanne Loring, and Newbury Elementary School’s Chance Lindsley, Kim Goody, and Ruth Kennedy.
By Suzanne Loring
Within every child there is a young reader or writer waiting to emerge. All it takes is an opportunity, that one special book, that one inspiring presentation by a local author, for a child to suddenly realize that, yes, “I am a reader,” “I am a writer.”
Over the past couple of weeks, the CLiF-mobile has been on the road again traveling all around Vermont and New Hampshire visiting elementary schools, meeting school staff, and discussing our newest initiative, Year of the Book, which was designed to channel those inner readers and writers.
Year of the Book was created to support the literacy efforts of elementary schools in New Hampshire and Vermont that are struggling to reach proficient levels on reading and writing tests and have a number of students who qualify for free and reduced lunch. By offering more than $25,000 worth of literacy support and books over the course of the 2012-2013 school year, CLiF hopes to help school staff, students, and parents come together to create an atmosphere of enthusiasm around books and reading.
Throughout the school year, CLiF will provide six different literacy programs, which may include writing workshops, author or illustrator visits, literacy workshops for parents, mini-grants for teachers, storytelling presentations, and books for school, public, and classroom libraries. In addition, each child in the school will be able to choose 10 new books to keep over the course of the year.
Beginning in September, CLiF will be partnering with three schools in Vermont: Brownington Central School in Brownington, VT; Johnson Elementary School in Johnson, VT; Newbury Elementary School in Newbury, VT, and three in New Hampshire: Brown School in Berlin, NH; Pittsburg School in Pittsburg, NH, and Pittsfield Elementary School in Pittsfield, NH.
We have high hope for Year of the Book and will make sure to post about it as often as we can in the coming year.
