Flower Hill Primary School’s Pick a Reading Partner program is in full swing and students are loving it.
March is PARP month and students are reading much more than usual. This year’s “mystery reader” theme is “Be a Flower Hill bookworm” and parents, community members and district officials are answering the call to visit the school’s classrooms and read passages from their favorite books to individual classes.
Huntington Superintendent James W. Polansky surprised Flower Hill first grade teacher Priya Mondkar’s class with an exciting read aloud of author BJ Novak’s The Book with No Pictures. “The students enjoyed his animated and enthusiastic read of the story,” Ms. Mondkar said.
The first graders thanked Mr. Polansky for his surprise visit and then went to work on creating their own versions of the story he read to them.
Flower Hill’s teachers, support staff, students and parents have all embraced the PARP initiative. Principal Lucia Laguarda has given it her full support, too.
“PARP is a program that asks a partner (parent, grandparent, babysitter, older sibling, cousin, friend, etc.) to read with a child for at least 15 minutes daily, stressing the fact that reading can be fun as well as informative,” according to the New York State PTA, which sponsors the initiative. “The choice of reading materials can vary from books to anything with printed words. The daily activity of reading together strengthens reading and communication skills in the child and strengthens their relationship.
The program’s history is traced to 1978 when State Senate Education Committee Chairman James Donovan developed it to promote and instill a love for reading across New York. The NYS PTA has been coordinating the program since 1987. It was originally known as Parents as Reading Partners before being renamed in 2015.
“PARP is a program that cements the necessary bond between the home and the school to encourage love of reading in our children,” according to the NYS PTA. “PARP programs vary in length [from] as little as two weeks or as long as six weeks or more. There is no annual or required theme – you create your own. Each program is meant to be unique and creative.”