Day 62

For over 5 years, the SC School for the Deaf and the Blind Foundation partnered with the South Carolina School for the Deaf and the Blind (SCSDB) to host the “Really Cool for My School Book Club”.  This book club was created out of a critical need at the time to ensure that our students at SCSDB had adequate reading material at home.  We also wanted to instill a love of reading in our students which would inadvertently increase their reading scores.  Children and teenagers who read for pleasure on a daily or weekly basis score better on reading tests than infrequent readers.  Frequent readers also score better on writing tests than non-readers or infrequent readers.  The “Really Cool for My School Book Club” was designed to instill a love of reading in our students at a young age so they will have the fundamentals necessary to excel academically.

Our “Really Cool for My School Book Club” was modeled after the Dolly Parton Imagination Library.  The Book Club started on the campus of SCSDB with a two-prong approach:  1) a book distribution where every student received a book accessible to them a minimum of two times per year and; 2) afterschool Book Club meetings to further engage students in the reading process.  Each student received an activity with their book to complete after they have read the book. Students who completed the activity were invited to attend a celebration party at the end of the semester.

With the students who participated in the afterschool Book Club meetings, we saw huge gains in students reading levels.  We saw significant increases in the number of students who met their Accelerated Reader goal.  While other literacy programs have since taken the place of the “Really Cool for My School Book Club”, the Foundation has not stopped its commitment to provide accessible reading materials to the students at SCSDB.

The picture at the top of this page shows students working on an activity during an afterschool book club meeting.  The picture on the previous page shows students holding up books excitedly.

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