reading

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, it’s the perfect time to share your love of reading with a child in Great Schools Partnership’s Leaders for Readers program.

Your gift of just $20 will provide five Knox County elementary students with a new book of their own to keep.

Great Schools Partnership’s Leaders for Readers program matches volunteers with first, second and third-grade students who need extra practice with reading. Volunteers are asked to commit to reading with assigned children one hour each week during the school year. Currently, Leaders for Reader volunteers are helping more than 450 students in 15 Knox County schools.

“Our goal is to present every participant with a brand new, high-interest book that he or she can own forever,” said Nicole Wilson, Great Schools’ Leaders for Readers project manager. “What better way to end the program year than with a token of encouragement to keep reading.”

Leaders for Readers’ mission is to increase the number of students in Knox County who can read proficiently by the end of third grade. Studies show that if a child isn’t reading at grade level by the end of the third grade, they stand a greater risk of falling behind in school. That’s when students are expected to make the leap from learning to read, to reading to learn.

Great Schools Partnership partnered with the Knox County’s Mayor’s office to kick off the program in 2015 at six elementary schools. The Leaders for Readers program has now grown to include 15 Knox County schools.

“Because of our volunteers, we’ve more than doubled the number of students we help,” said Wilson. “The program is really making a difference!”

Last year’s benchmark testing showed more growth from Leaders for Readers participants than a matched control group, and teachers report 85 percent of students improved in at least one of the measured areas.

To help us provide a new book for each of our Leaders for Readers participants click here to visit our donations webpage or call 865-215-4501 for more options. Volunteers must be 18 years or older and complete a required background check. Volunteers range in age 18 to 70-plus. Click here to sign-up as an interested volunteer now!

With the teacher’s cue, small groups of rising sixth-graders scurry onto the stage. Girls huddle stage right, boys huddle stage left.

They sit cross-legged on the floor in a circle with theatre assistants from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville talking about acting and why respect is important in theater. For many of these preteens, this is their first experience with theatre.

One theatre assistant lets a girl braid her hair as she explains the stage will become their safe place, where they can become anyone they want. A shy girl removes the shades she’s worn all morning and gets engaged stage blocking her new role as Ellen in “Number the Stars”. And it’s all just the beginning for Shakespeare in Shades.

Shakespeare in Shades is more than just a summer theatre camp. It’s our latest research and development project with Knox County Schools that combines language arts and theatre activities to improve reading proficiency and ease the transition from elementary to middle school.

“My hope is that kids will leave the program, realizing that Shakespeare and other famous writers were just regular people, writing stories about their everyday lives, which have so many similarities to the themes and struggles that people deal with today,” said Andrew Drake, a recent UT MFA Theatre graduate.

Middle school texts have been adapted into 30 minutes scripts which students will perform at the Clarence Brown Theatre at UT during the final week of camp, June 27-30. Northwest Middle will present an adaptation of “Number the Stars” by Lois Lowry and Vine Magnet Middle will be presenting an adaptation of “Holes” by Louis Sachar.

“As we strive to create the best schools in the south, we must be creative,” says Stephanie Welch from Great Schools Partnership. “Shakespeare in Shades taps into one of our communities’ creative gems – UT’s Clarence Brown Theatre – to build reading skills among middle school youth.”

Shakespeare in Shades is made possible through the Great Schools Partnership, in partnership with Knox County Schools and the Clarence Brown Theatre.

Share Your Love of Reading with Leaders for Readers

Introducing Shakespeare in Shades