District announces partnership with Kids Read Now program

Chardon Local Schools has partnered with the nonprofit organization Kids Read Now for their individualized summer reading program that will deliver books to all of the district’s children in kindergarten through third grade.

Kids Read Now will mail out books over the summer that children and their parents have selected, including a range of both fiction and nonfiction titles.

Students are able to select up to nine books per summer.

According to Chardon Local Schools Curriculum Supervisor Dr. Kelly Moran, students will be able to keep the books, at no cost to any of the families.

As of Nov. 18, Chardon school district has fully inperson classes for elementary schools and the middle school, but Moran said that partnering with Kids Read Now is more important this year than ever in case the schools have to shift back to emergency remote learning at any point.

She said that while it is common for students to experience a “summer reading slide,” or literacy levels going down over break, the loss of skills could be even more pronounced this year.

“The whole reason why this was a program that appealed to us was because we thought it would be something that would help mitigate what we traditionally see as a summer slide.

And in addition to a summer slide, we just believe in exposing kids to print materials in the home, it helps up their chances of developing those early literacy skills that will carry them far as readers,” Moran said.

Moran explained that the Kids Read Now program is also designed to help parents engage with their children in discussions about the books they have read.

“Since we know not every parent is trained to be a teacher, one of the beauti

“One of the beautiful things about Kids Read Now is that it supplies parent cue cards.” — Dr. Kelly Moran, Chardon Local Schools Curriculum Supervisor

ful things about Kids Read Now is that it supplies parent cue cards for parents to have that include discussion points, talking points, or questions that they can ask their child after he or she reads the book to build communication skills and involvement together,” she said.

Moran said Chardon Local Schools has committed to a membership with Kids Read Now for the next four years, which will allow them to tweak the summer reading program to best fit the needs of their students.