Mission, Texas- All Mission CISD (Consolidated Independent School District) elementary students joined with students from around the state of Texas for a special reading event video feed, featuring the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, Jason Garrett. The event is called Texas Reads One Book. Garrett read the first chapter of The World According to Humphrey, by Betty Birney.
“I believe we are the only district in the Rio Grande Valley that had all its elementary students participating in this state event,” said Dr. Ricardo López, superintendent. “As the hometown of former Dallas Cowboys legend Tom Landry, this seemed like a perfect way to begin our Read to Lead initiative.”
Each Mission CISD elementary student received a copy of the book for today’s event and will be continuing to read the book. Students will be encouraged to read the book with their parents/family at home.
Other activities were created as a part of the Texas Reads One Book program. The district designated today, April 27, as Hall of Fame Day in the district. Tom Landry, the Dallas Cowboys, and some of the community’s history played a role in many of those activities.
Dr. López said the district’s new Read to Lead initiative is focusing on creating future leaders, and the fact that leaders are readers. “We are building a program that we hope will not only impact student achievement in all subjects, but we are hoping to impact our community as well by finding ways to involve parents and families in this whole process, Dr. López said.
The next event will be so large; it will take a whole stadium to hold it. The morning of Tuesday, May 19, all of Mission CISD elementary students will be bused to Tom Landry Stadium for a giant reading rally to kick off the district’s summer reading program. As a part of this program, each elementary student will be given a backpack with two books to be read over the summer, along with an interactive journal for students to complete before school starts again in late August. The book titles students receive will be based upon their grade level. Students and teachers are being encouraged to come to the rally dressed as their favorite book character. Music and fun activities are being planned for the reading rally.
“We want reading to be something students think of as a fun activity,” said Cris Valdez, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction. “These activities are just the starting point of helping our student build their reading skills, but to also discover that reading can be fun. We need help them explore the different genres of books on their own, for pleasure reading; as opposed to assigned reading which tends to take some of the joy out of it for many students.”
Valdez also indicated one of the main purposes of a summer reading program is to help fight the summer slide that happens while students are away from school. Summer programs are designed to help student retain more of what they have learned the previous school year.
Valdez said the district is also hoping to help students and families build their own home libraries of books and are also working on helping teachers build up their classroom libraries to help students explore the many different types of books that are available to them.
“We are also focusing on providing teachers will additional training to help them work with students in this area of need,” said Valdez.
More information about Texas Reads One Book, and a video recording of Jason Garrett’s presentation, are available online at, http://readtothem.org/texasreads/.
Pictured are fourth grade students at Castro Elementary School reading along during the Texas Reads One Book kick off this morning.
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