Recordings Turn A Page Students Show Governor How They Help Younger Kids Learn To Read
Days after results of Idaho’s latest reading test were released, Gov. Dirk Kempthorne visited students here Friday to applaud their new literacy program.
Under the Woodland Middle School program, funded by a $500 state grant, seventh- and eighth-graders record books on tape that elementary students can listen to and improve their reading skills.
“I want to compliment all of you older students for what you’re doing,” Kempthorne told students in Carol Jarvelin’s reading class. “I think you’re making a difference.”
Results of the state’s new reading test showed that one quarter of children in kindergarten through third grade read below their grade levels.
“It just affirms that we have to put the emphasis on reading,” Kempthorne said after speaking to the class. “To have that many children below grade level in their reading shows we have to concentrate.”
Jarvelin bought the tape recorders, cassette players, tapes and batteries necessary for the project through the state’s innovative teaching grant.
She was one of two educators in the Coeur d’Alene School District to receive the grant and one of about 200 recipients statewide.
Legislators committed $100,000 to the grants last year.
On Friday, first-graders from Ramsey Elementary School lined the front rows, while Woodland students sat behind them, taking turns playing their recorded books for younger students.
Students practiced their recordings over and over, perfecting their timing and making sure to say, “please turn page” in the right spots.
The books were selected by Ramsey teachers from among their students’ favorite stories.
Ashley Warren, 13, got to demonstrate her recording of “Arthur’s Valentine” for the governor.
The program has helped her reading skills and made her feel good about helping younger students, Warren said.
“I like it,” she said. “I think it’s nice.”
Kempthorne asked Ramsey first-grader Scott Turner what he thought of Warren’s voice on tape.
“I thought it was very nice,” Turner said. “When I read the books on tape, it helped me a lot.”