FITCHBURG – On Oct. 8, students at the McKay Campus School will join their peers from across the globe in a simultaneous celebration of the joys of reading.
The international Read for the Record campaign was begun in 2006, an effort to bring preschool children and grownups together to read the same book on the same day in communities all over the world.
In Fitchburg, the program will incorporate 32 student readers from the Fitchburg Arts Academy, which moved this year to the upper floors of the McKay Campus School. The FAA students will read to their younger peers, who will get to take home copies of Eric Carle’s classic The Very Hungry Caterpillar. The guest readers will also include Fitchburg State College students.
The Kappa Delta Pi International Honor Society at the college is leading the event, with the society’s co-counselors Dr. Nancy L. Murray, who chairs the Graduate Program in Moderate Disabilities in the college’s Education Department, and Dr. Laurie DeRosa, a professor of Education. The project is also supported by McKay Principal Ruth Joseph and FAA Principal Deborah Langlois.
“This event is a wonderful way to bring children, young adolescents and college students together to celebrate the importance of literacy in everyone’s lives,” Dr. Murray said.
Dr. Murray will be meeting with all the readers to facilitate activities to incorporate before, during and after reading.
Last year, nearly 700,000 readers shared the classic children’s tale Corduroy in classrooms, libraries and homes from Japan, Germany, Brazil and across the U.S., with children simultaneously experiencing the joy of reading. Organizers hope to have 1 million readers share the story this year.
The Read for the Record program is sponsored by Jumpstart in conjunction with the Pearson Foundation. Jumpstart brings college students and community volunteers to preschool children for tutoring and mentoring.
The Pearson Foundation will present a catered lunch for the McKay Campus School faculty on that day. |
