'Great By Eight' Aims to Help Kids Catch Up
Volunteers at Harvest Ridge Elementary work one on one with kids to get them on track in reading.
Twice a week, LaDonna Darks, 66, gets to help kindergartners at Harvest Ridge Elementary School learn to do her favorite thing: reading. "If you can't read, you can't dream and you don't know what's out there," she said. Darks, who retired from working as a nurse anesthetist about a year and a half ago, volunteers for a new reading intervention program in the Francis Howell School District aimed at getting students caught up in reading by the time they are 8 years old. A recent research study released by the Annie E. Casey Foundation has found that students in third grade with low reading proficiency are more likely to become high school dropouts. "We have a lot of children who don't know beginning sounds, who don't recognize letters," …
Kalen Ponche
5:59 pm on Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Hey Jaycen- I spent a long time interviewing LaDonna Darks- I think her point, and the point that maybe isn't clear just in that quote-- is that reading opens up a new world of information to kids. When they learn to read they can ask questions and learn about things that are far away. She talked a little bit about how reading about California prompted her to move there when she joined the Navy. more ›