In too many impoverished homes, books are scarce, as is the opportunity to learn to read. Through donations to #Fight4Literacy Games presented by International Paper grants are provided to literacy partners to purchase books and resources to help young students to learn to read. Last season, in partnership with the South Carolina Gamecocks, Coaching for Literacy was able to send approximately $10,000 to Webber Elementary School in Eastover, South Carolina.
These are the stories we love to hear from our literacy partners. The stories that show how the #Fight4Literacy unlocks opportunity to those children that need it most. Children that were born in an impoverish zipcode without the resources to help them thrive.
Read on to learn how Webber Elementary used donations from the 2019-2020 #Fight4Literacy Game with South Carolina. Interested in helping us raise even more for students at Webber Elementary? Click here to make your gift today. Let’s provide more books to the students at Webber Elementary.
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Eastover is a small, impoverished South Carolina town about 25 miles east of Columbia. A population of 831, a Dollar General store and Webber Elementary call Eastover home.
The leaders of Webber Elementary refuse to let circumstances dictate results. At a school in which more than 90 percent of its 200 students live in poverty, we are a 21st Century School that practices critical thinking, communication, creativity and collaboration. Just because outside conditions created a box for our students doesn’t mean we can’t push them to think outside it.
Studies and data show that students who live in poverty come to school knowing 50 percent fewer words than others, having heard up to 30 million fewer words by age 3. Because of this statistic, we understand the importance of literacy and the foundational skills with which our teachers equip our students every day.
This year we set a goal to purchase two books for each student in each teacher’s classroom. Thanks to Coaching for Literacy and International Paper, we were able to reach our goal. With the grant from CFL, each student was able to choose books based on their interest. They were able to take their books home and share them with family members to add to their own home libraries. Teachers also receive curriculum resources to support literacy teaching in their classroom including culturally relevant books, writing tool kits, paper to print additional books and more.
During our literacy night, we incorporated the arts into literacy by allowing our art teacher to paint stories about books and for students to do the same. Coaching for Literacy and International Paper have helped and continue to help us bridge the gap between today’s learners and tomorrow’s leaders. With an extra book in hand, our students are able to learn up to 100 new words with every turn of a page.
Thank you, Coaching for Literacy and International Paper. We look forward to working with you in the future. If anyone is interested in supporting our initiative, please send an email to Sommer Jones at sommer.jones@richlandone.org.
