After School Reads

This program trains staff members at after school sites on strategies to provide fun, activity-driven ways to expose children to a variety of quality literature experiences.

After School Reads utilizes the KidzLit program produced by the Developmental Studies Center to provide easy to understand strategies to help counselors make reading an enjoyable experience. KidzLit is a comprehensive plan to actively involve the children in fun, hands-on activities while reading quality literature that relates to their everyday lives. Site libraries are provided with books for grades kindergarten through fifth grade. A number of sites also participate in the Reading is Fundamental (RIF) National Book program. All children at these sites have the opportunity to select a book to keep three times over the course of the year.

2009-2010 Program Outcomes:

  • 111 workshops were presented for 327 participants.
  • 17 Family Reading Nights were presented for 371 parents and 434 children.
  • 14,002 books were distributed to after school program sites and children.

PROGRAM IMPACT

Working with After School Reads Manager Gloria Allin has been a Godsend! Gloria has introduced us to books that are amazingly relevant and engaging to our kids. What’s proven even more important are the teaching guides that accompany those books. The guides have provided easy to follow and thought provoking ways of getting our kids to really get into what they’re reading.

The most amazing benefit we’ve received has been the way Gloria’s knowledge and insight have gotten our teachers to look at teaching literature from perspectives we might never have come up with on our own. We’re grateful for all she’s brought to us and can’t wait to see what she comes up with next!

Alan Burgess
Education Program Coordinator
Milagro Center