As students turned the page to a new school year, teachers and staff quickly got to work ensuring that they were also turning the pages of a good book. Schools in the Binghamton City School District once again began home reading programs this fall, influencing students to become avid readers.
Reading programs vary from school to school, but all of them are emphasizing the doors that reading can open. Assistant Principal Kristy Sloma led the reading program kickoff event at Roosevelt Elementary School on October 17. The most impactful portion of the program: a personal story of resiliency that proved the value of sticking with it, and the power of teachers.
Some students experience difficulty on the road to becoming proficient readers. Sloma shared with the student body how her journey initially followed that track, opening up that she did not learn how to read until she was in third grade. Up to that point, she could identify her name and some basic words, but reading passages, and certainly a whole book, proved daunting. The combination of that struggle, seeing other students become proficient readers, and a turbulent home life caused Sloma’s attendance to plummet.
“I started playing sick from school because I couldn’t do what all the other kids could do," Sloma explains. "I got very, very good at it [playing sick], I had horrible attendance, and then in third grade, everything changed for me.”
Sloma credits her third-grade teacher as being instrumental to bridging the literacy gap. By truly working hard to find out her problem areas, getting Sloma proper resources, and finding ideal reading groups, the teacher helped to spark improvement. By the end of third grade, Sloma read her first chapter book; she still has the copy of James and the Giant Peach her teacher gave her, complete with all the teacher’s notes. From there, Sloma notes she became a straight-A student the very next year, and eventually became an educator so she could help students in the same way teachers helped her.
“Knowing how much she cared about me made me want to come to school and made me want to work,” Sloma added. “I went on to get my Master’s in literacy because I didn’t know how I learned to read and I didn’t know how I could teach someone else how to read when I don’t know how I figured it out.”
She now works in a school full of teachers similar to the one she admired in third grade. All the teachers in the Binghamton City School District are working with students to foster the same spark Sloma received when she was young. This type of encouragement, along with the home reading program, are creating lifelong readers and learners.
“Reading every day helps encourage a love of learning,” said Shannon Walker, BCSD Director of Humanities. “Reading sparks curiosity and allows students to experience new perspectives. As students develop stronger reading skills, they become more confident and this motivates them to keep learning and growing.”
Students from Pre-K through fifth grade are encouraged to read at home, on their own or with a grown-up, every single day. To help get them excited about reading, many of our elementary schools invited special guests from Binghamton High School - the cheerleading team, members of the football program, and players from the boys and girls basketball teams - to get them pumped up.
“Many of the elementary kids look to the older students as role models, so seeing them involved in the reading program was very exciting,” Walker said. “We hope that these visits help to inspire younger students to value reading and stay motivated in their learning.”
That focus on relationships is key to not just reading, but learning as a whole. Sloma notes that knowing the go-to person at the school that can assist students, and having a great relationship with teachers are some of the best ways a parent can be an advocate for their child’s education. For students, she adds, finding a trusted person at school who can help and having good attendance are key to improving in problem areas. The benefit of doing so is unlocking a whole new world of learning.
“For me, reading is everything. It opened up a world that I didn’t think was possible and gave me opportunities that I didn’t think were possible,” Sloma says.