Foundation grant gives boost to Freehold reading program
‘Library carnival’ also
offered to third-graders
at Park Avenue School
JERRY WOLKOWITZ With the aid of a grant from the Freehold Borough Educational Foundation, teacher Wendy Buchanan is able to conduct a unique reading program for students at the Park Avenue School, including Kristen Filipek, 8.
FREEHOLD — Wendy Buchanan’s students are not only learning to read — they’re learning to actually enjoy the process.
Buchanan, who has been teaching at the Park Avenue School for four years, said this is her first year teaching third grade, and she’s loving every minute of it.
The teacher confided that as a child she hated reading and admits she did everything she could possibly do to avoid it. Consequently, she has a driving need to keep her students from experiencing that same dislike.
One of the methods Buchanan is planning to spark her students’ interest and pass on the love of reading she now has is a "library carnival." Through the generosity of a $1,500 grant awarded to her for her project by the Freehold Borough Educa-tional Foundation, Buchanan has been able to implement her ideas and is seeing them take shape.
Those who think reading is boring haven’t seen Buchanan’s class in action. Children’s eyes bright with laughter, little fingers concentrating on cutting out vivid pictures and colorful construction cutouts of their favorite book characters make her classroom exciting and fun.
Buchanan blends reading with arts and crafts and has come up with what appears to be a winning combination to help children see beyond the words in the books they’re reading.
Buchanan’s teaching method intends to achieve harmony by having the children interact with one another as they work on their projects and talk about their books. These children were having fun. They not only read the words, but translated them into something else.
Through Buchanan’s lively project, the children also learn the meaning of the stories they read.
Along the third-grade teacher’s window sill sits a row of books purchased with the fund’s money. Books like The Boxcar Children mystery series by Gertrude Chandler Warner, Freckle Juice by Judy Blume, and Beverly Cleary’s Muggie Maggie or Ramona the Brave were the children’s choices. Buchanan said she would not have been able to have these books without the money she received from the fund.
The library carnival project will include students in all three of the school’s third-grade classes. Buchanan groups the students according to their chosen books. Children sit four or five to a table and work on their art projects as Buchanan helps them to create something to go along with their book, making the story more real and their characters touchable.
Students meet in their groups on Monday and Wednesday. They’ve spent the last few weeks reading the books they chose in a "round robin" fashion, according to the teacher.
Now that the books had been read, the action part of the carnival was under way.
With large plastic bags in tow, the group of third-graders filed in, took their seats and worked on cutting out construction paper characters. Buchanan’s goal is to generate enough interest in the art of reading for the children to realize that reading can be fun, she said.
Inside their bags each child had a folder, designed by them to represent scenes or material from the book they were reading, a handmade paper journal, pencils, crayons, a glue stick and colorful scissors. Buchanan explained that the journal was there for the pupils to write their feelings about their book, as well as to write down words and lines that characters in the book spoke.
"Words like ‘I am’ or ‘I feel’ or ‘I will’ are statements that signify or tell who a character is and what he or she is really about. These are the type of things that go into their journals," Buchanan said.
The pupils’ journal entries are used to create one of the carnival projects — a character mobile.
Children cut out a circle and decorate it with crayons, construction paper and bits of yarn. They were instructed to create a likeness of their favorite character in the book. They also cut out four "dialogue bubbles" in which they are asked to write character lines from their journals to make others understand about the personality of their character.
The teacher explained that the materials, all supplied by the foundation grant, were also used to draw banners depicting the use of sequencing and summarizing. Children drew their impressions of the beginning, middle and end of their stories.
Buchanan has additional plans for her carnival. Soon, she said, she and her students will be brainstorming to come up with games related to the children’s books. The library carnival will be held in the near future and will include games and prizes, posters and possibly T-shirts portraying the books the children have read.
Principal Marian Mazer said she was glad the grant was able to reach all of the school’s third-graders.
"We stress the importance of reading, language arts and literary skills. This program enhances our curriculum and engages the students in the whole literary process," said the principal.