United Way recognizes Olive Street School for literacy programs
The United Way of Tulare County presented the Spirit of Education Award to Olive Street Elementary School in a ceremony Friday morning in Visalia. The award was in recognition of the school’s effective use of a United Way Literacy Project grant, as well as overall efforts to promote literacy amongst its students.
“Olive Street Elementary School stood out to United Way because of their impressive efforts to ensure their students thrive as readers,” said Susan Manuel, United Way of Tulare County director of development. “Last year, we awarded over $12,000 in literacy grants to K-3 teachers, with one of the grants going to Jill Stokes’ classroom at Olive Street. Visiting the school on several occasions, we were able to see how administrators, staff and teachers go above and beyond when it comes to encouraging and promoting reading schoolwide. Their positive literacy outcomes speak volumes.”
Stokes, a second grade teacher who has taught at Olive Street for 31 years, knew that her students did not have books at home to read, and applied for the United Way Literacy Project grant to address this challenge. Thanks to the United Way and Usborne books, Olive Street School received $3,000 for purchasing books that students can read outside of the classroom. As a result, students are now taking books home, reading them, taking assessments on those books, and increasing both their vocabulary and reading levels.
Fifth-grader Anise Pena, who was on hand for the ceremony Friday, is one of those students and an Olive Street success story. Last year, Pena started in fourth grade slightly below grade level, but moved up two years in reading levels by the end of the year thanks to the school’s focus on literacy programs.
Pena represented Olive Street at the Tulare County Office of Education Poetry and Prose competition. She now helps other students with a reading program that takes place before school, and recently made a video to promote Olive Street’s Book Fair.
In addition to creating opportunities for reading outside of the classroom, Olive Street School staff participate in programs that stimulate a lifelong interest in reading. One of those programs is Read Across America, an event created by the National Education Association to promote reading by celebrating the birthday of Dr. Seuss on March 2. This year, Judy Bedell, Olive Elementary School’s reading teacher, invited community members to the school to read with students for the event and share their own stories about the importance of literacy in their careers and their lives.
Parents have been part of the effort as well. Olive Street School has partnered with Parent Institute for Quality Education, and parents have attended evening classes to learn how they can better support their children in literacy.
“Literacy is paramount at our site. We have had a laser-like focus on building a sound literacy system in grades K-3 so that our students would have a solid foundation for the demands of the text complexity in the upper grades and beyond,” said Isaac Nunez, Olive Street School principal. “We continue to be relentless in our pursuit of equipping our students with the skills necessary to be future-ready learners.”
The United Way of Tulare County’s Literacy Project offers small grants to K-3 grade teachers in need of books for their classrooms. The new program focuses on lowering the rate of illiteracy in Tulare County, which is 18 percent higher than the rest of California’s population.