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Raising a Reader

Raising A Reader

Raising A Reader (RAR) is a program designed to encourage low-income parents with limited literacy and English skills to read and to share the book experience with their young children by establishing a reading routine that enhances their children’s vocabulary, pre-literacy skills, and family bonding time. 

The mission of Raising A Reader is to foster healthy brain development, parent-child bonding and early literacy skills critical for school success by engaging parents in a routine of daily “book cuddling” with their children from birth to age five.

Spartanburg Terrace Tenants Association is an affiliate of the RAR national network that reaches out to these families through schools and a partnership with the Mommy & Me program.  The program is currently being implemented in Park Hills Elementary and Mary H. Wright Elementary schools in Spartanburg County School District 7. 

Each week, Raising A Reader children (or parents) bring home a sturdy red bag filled with four high quality, developmentally-appropriate, multi-cultural children’s books.  Over the course of several months, they are exposed to a wide variety of titles, providing them with a mirror reflecting their own world and a window to the world beyond.  Through initial training and ongoing support, Raising A Reader parents, including those with limited English proficiency or low literacy skills, learn how to engage their children in story telling with picture books.  The program include and introduction to the public the public library, setting up families for a lifetime of book enjoyment.

The Raising A Reader program assist parents with addressing common barriers that they face.  These barriers include:

  1. The assumption that children must be quiet an listen attentively during reading time;
  2. The assumption that they must be a good reader in or to read to their children;
  3. The assumption that their children are too young to learn to read and reading should be learned in school;
  4. Not having access to books; and
  5. Finding time to read can be stressful.

Once a month the Spartanburg affiliate conduct workshops for the RAR parents to teach them strategies for helping their children and those who are illiterate to learn to read.  The program implementers bring in literacy coaches an experts to assist parents.  Through a partnership with the Chapman Cultural Center and the Spartanburg Arts Center they provide these families with the opportunity to attend family literacy events (i.e. Nutcracker, Snow White, and Peter and the Wolf). 

For more information on the Spartanburg Terrace Tenant Association Raising the Reader program, contact Ben Wright or Chrystal Parker at 864.342.9005.