Mission, Texas- As a part of Mission CISD’s (Consolidated Independent School District) Read to Lead initiative, all district elementary schools will be participating in Texas Reads One Book on Monday, April 11, at 9:00 a.m. Mission CISD officials said the district is the only one in the Rio Grande Valley implementing the special reading event district-wide.
Texas Reads One Book celebration will lead off, via video feed, by Jason Garrett, head coach of the Dallas Cowboys. Garrett will read the first chapter of the Charlotte’s Web, by E.B. White. Garrett’s videotaped reading of the first chapter will be streamed to each Mission CISD school and more than 100 other elementary schools in Texas. Each elementary student in grades Kinder-5th will receive their own copy of the book.
“What makes this fun is the whole idea of joining in with schools from all across the state in sharing a good book,” said Dr. Ricardo López, superintendent. “It is like one giant book club meeting held via the internet.” López also said this ties in well with the district’s Read to Lead initiative in that there will be activities planned for parent involvement in the book at home, in addition to lessons at school. “Read to Lead is about impacting our community by finding ways to involve parents and families in the whole process of becoming more literate,” he added.
The next district event planned as a part of Mission CISD’s Read to Lead initiative will be so large; it will take a whole stadium to hold it. The morning of Tuesday, May 17, all of Mission CISD’s elementary students will be bused to Tom Landry Stadium for a giant reading rally that will also kick off the district’s summer reading program. As a part of this program, each elementary school student will be given a backpack with two books to be read over the summer. The students will be given an opportunity to select two books of their choice. At the reading rally, 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 students build their reading skills, but to also discover that reading can be fun. We need to 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.”
The Texas Reads One Book is a project of the Texas Association of School Administrators, with support from the nonprofit family literacy organization Read to Them, and the The School Superintendents Association. More about Texas Reads One Book and to preview the video that will be shared, statewide, go to, http://readtothem.org/programs/texas-reads-one-book/. The announcement shared with students is available through this link, https://youtu.be/ECKSzjld5LY.
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