Learning and Loving Literacy Bags
Elaine likes learning new things by helping people,
especially children. As a high school student and member of the
Technical Honor Society, Elaine understands and values the importance
of education, specifically literacy. For her Gold Award project,
Elaine knew she wanted to combine her love of learning and helping
children. She decided to connect with her local elementary school and
discovered through research and discussions with five kindergarten
teachers, other K-4 teachers, and the K-8 librarians that only 9% of
kindergarteners at the school met the end of grade reading standard.
Upon further research, Elaine discovered that children who are
literate develop bigger vocabularies, become better readers, and are
more likely to succeed in school. Reading also fosters creativity and
improves communication skills, which play a vital role in social
interaction and future career success. When researching why reading
levels were so low at the school, Elaine discovered that many children
fall behind in their literacy levels due to lack of access to books at
home as well as other literacy resources, such as public libraries.
With all of this information, Elaine decided the best way to address
literacy would be to create literacy bags. Working with the school
teachers and librarians, Elaine designed 54 themed literacy bags for
kindergarten students to check out weekly at the school library.
Elaine knew from her research that increasing literacy rates involve
more than just reading books, literacy needs to be interactive and
fun. Her bags included books for families to read to their children as
well as leveled books for students to read to their families and an
interactive academic activity.
Elaine’s goal was to
enhance student literacy at home, outside of school hours, which she
would measure her impact through Fountas and Pinnell data,
observations by the teachers and librarians, as well as parent
feedback forms. A third of the way through her project, Elaine
revisited the initial data she had collected and compared it against
the data collected after the distribution of the literacy bags, and
realized that reading standards in kindergarteners had increased by
22%! Due to the pandemic and forced remote learning, the bags could
not be checked out by families, however, Elaine was able to pivot her
project and scheduled weekly reading time with students via zoom to
ensure they were continuing to receive literacy resources and
opportunities outside of classroom time.
Elaine’s project
continues because now that schools are partially reopened, the bags
have been given to the kindergarten classes and continue to circulate
through the students. Additionally, the attitudes, excitement, and
enthusiasm about literacy have changed in the students and families.
Elaine noted that “the students have a greater love for literacy
because of the bags so they will continue to enhance their literacy
skills by reading at home in the future. The love of literacy will
continue.”
Elaine says the most important thing she
learned during her project was “I can persevere and not give up when
things seem hopeless. It [the pandemic] was not going to prevent me
from reaching my goal of enhancing literacy at home.”
Gold Award Girl Scout, Elaine
26 Jun 2021
