WVPubcast - Education

West Virginia Public Broadcasting is proud to extend its Ready To Learn service with a new initiative called PBS KIDS Raising Readers.

Raising Readers in McDowell County

As many as 100 McDowell County children completed a Raising Readers Adventure in July with West Virginia Public Broadcasting and dozens of community partners.

Throughout the month, kids ages four through six either took part in a free Raising Readers camp, went on a “Raising Readers Adventure” through their local library, or both, to hone their skills to become better readers.

RR: Two campers

These campers are working on a craft that will help reinforce the day’s lesson.

The children worked on letter and word recognition, rhyming, sentence structure and story sequencing and the before and after skills assessments show improvement.

But the fun and learning don’t stop there! More activities are planned for the fall and winter including several public awareness efforts and community events. For example, our community partners are working on a grocery store game that will help parents incorporate simple literacy skills activities into their daily errands.

Left: A camper models a mask of Princess Presto from Spelling Day. Princess Presto is a character in Super Why! which airs weekdays at 9 am on West Virginia PBS.

Thank you!!

West Virginia Public Broadcasting acknowledges these Raising Readers partners: Big Creek People in Action, United Way of Central West Virginia LifeBridge AmeriCorps, AmeriCorps*Vista, War Public Library, Bradshaw Public Library, McDowell Public Library, Iaeger Public Library, and Northfork Public Library.

The following community partners are also helping to make Raising Readers successful: Berwind Lake Fishermen's Association, Billings Auto Repair, Bryant's, Douglas Funeral Home, Dottie Crigger, Greg's Wrecker Service, Janis Hagy, Jean's Beauty Shop, Jo's Pastries and Candies, Kellogg Leadership for Community Change, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Long John Silver's, Mama Jess's, McDonalds, McDowell Pharmacy, Odell Hicks, Save-a-Lot, Town of War, WalMart, War Coffee Shop, War Kiwanis, War Hand Center, WELC AM/FM, and Welch News.

To track each child’s progress, skills assessments were conducted before and after camp each day.

The national Raising Readers initiative is funded as part of the US Dept. of Education’s Ready To Learn grant and is managed by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), PBS and The Ready to Learn Partnership through a cooperative agreement. The project’s goal is to use research-based, dynamic and entertaining PBS KIDS^® programs and related multi-media content to help meet the literacy needs of kids, ages 2-8, from low-income families.

Bolstering the Raising Readers Initiative is a generous $2,000 grant from the WV Dept. of Education and the Arts and approval by the Neighborhood Investment Program (NIP) for WV tax credits. These additional funds will allow WV Public Broadcasting to duplicate the successes in McDowell County in other areas of the state with similar needs.

Go on your own Raising Readers Adventure!

For more information about Ready To Learn and the Raising Readers Initiative, email Debbie Oleksa or call 1-888-596-9729.

You can create your own Raising Readers Adventure by visiting the Raising Readers Web site. There are lots of games, family activity ideas, resources for teachers and parents, and more!

Also watch these shows which help strengthen reading skills. Times listed below are for West Virginia PBS.

Martha Speaks – weekdays at 7:30 am and 3:30 pm

Super Why! – weekdays at 9 am

Sesame Street – weekdays at 10 am

Word World – weekdays at 11:30 am

Between the Lions – weekdays at 2 pm

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