Archive for the ‘Featured’ Category

A landmark $2.5M federal grant from the U.S. Department of Education has been awarded to Clifford Beers Community Care Center in partnership with New Haven Public Schools and fourteen community organizations (including New Haven Reads) to form the Grand Avenue Learning Corridor Partnership.

The announcement took place on January 29. U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, Senator Richard Blumenthal, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, and New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker joined Superintendent of New Haven Public Schools, Dr. Madeline Negrón, several New Haven Alders, and representatives of Clifford Beers, NHR and other partners joined together for a press conference to talk about this terrific opportunity.

The grant will implement the Full-Service Community Schools Model and focuses on two schools: Fair Haven School and Family Academy of Multilingual Exploration (FAME Academy). The goal is to build strong academic foundations; cultivate students’ health, and mental health, improve stability and a healthy learning environment; facilitate accessible and culturally affirming programs, services and resources; and support ongoing school improvement. These wrap-around services and activities will include literacy interventions from New Haven Reads at Fair Haven School.

New Haven Reads Executive Director, Kirsten Levinsohn, said “New Haven Reads is thrilled to be part of this important effort in support of the Fair Haven School community. The power of a group of talented and passionate community members and organizations in conjunction with dedicated school personnel is formidable and boundless. We look forward to contributing to the long-term student success that this community work will bring.”

New Haven Reads is delighted to be one of the 14 community organizations and agencies in the Grand Avenue Learning Corridor Partnership. The others are: ARTE, Junta for Progressive Action, Catholic Charities of Centro San Jose, the New Haven Free Public Library, Fair Haven Community Health Care, the New Haven Federation of Teachers, United Way of Greater New Haven, Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services, the City of New Haven Youth and Recreation Department and Elderly Services Department, Dwight Hall at Yale, the City Wide Youth Coalition, and the Connecticut Violence Intervention Program.

Further reading: Clifford Beers Community Care Center Announcement, The New Haven Register, watch the video from WTNH, and read more in the New Haven Independent.

Join us to share the joy and power of reading with local students!

New Haven Reads provides free one-on-one tutoring for children who are aspiring readers. We also offer a free
Kindergarten and Pre-K program, and enrichment summer clubs. We serve students from across the Greater New
Haven area each week at four program sites. In addition, we also provide free, gently-used books to the public,
teachers, and community organizations through our community Book Bank.

Duties and Responsibilities for Summer Intern:

• One-on-one tutoring of students grades 1st through 12th (primarily in reading) Planning and running summer enrichment clubs (e.g., Chess Club, Art Club, Book Club)
• Supporting Site Staff in monitoring programs and tutoring pairs
• General office and administrative work – e.g. data input, research, filing
• Sorting and packing books for our Book Bank

Minimum Requirements:

• Flexibility and patience
• Experience tutoring or working with elementary and/or middle school students
• Must be a rising college freshman with a high school G.P.A. of 3.0 or higher or a current
  college student with a G.P.A. of 3.0 or higher

Desired:

• Math or STEAM tutoring experience
• Resident of New Haven
• Fluent in Spanish

Training:
Interns will attend Orientation sessions as well as training in our NHR Program Model. Additional training will be
provided based upon placement at site (e.g., Book Bank).

Timing:
The internship will run for seven consecutive weeks starting on Monday, June 24th and ending on Friday, August9th. (New Haven Reads will be closed on Thursday, July 4th and Friday, July 5th.) The first week will be committed to orientation and training for a total of 20 hours. The remaining six weeks of the position will be 27 hours per week. During this time, we operate Monday through Wednesday from 2pm to 7:30pm and Thursday and Friday from 2pm to 6:30pm. Candidates must be available the entire 7 weeks if offered the position. Specific schedules and placements will be determined with individual applicants.

Pay Rate: $16.00/hour

To apply:
A completed NHR application should be emailed, along with a cover letter, resume, and most recent transcripts to hr@newhavenreads.org. Include “Summer 2024 Internship Application” in the subject line of your email. Six internships will be available. Only complete applications will be considered and qualified candidates will be contacted for an interview on a rolling basis until all positions are filled.

Final Application Deadline: Friday, March 29, 2024 by 5:00 pm

New Haven Reads is an equal opportunity employer.

Margie B. Gillis, Ed.D is a nationally recognized literacy expert and a Certified Academic Language Therapist who has been teaching children of all ages to read for over 40 years. She received her Doctorate of Education from the University of Louisville in Special Education. In 2009, Margie founded Literacy How, Inc. to provide professional development opportunities and coaching for teachers on how best to implement evidence-based reading practices in the classroom.

Volunteers are the heart and soul of New Haven Reads, and we are currently accepting new applications.

New Haven Reads is in need of volunteers to tutor our growing number of students. If you have been thinking about making a difference in our community, now is a great time! Tutor our students and make an impact on our amazing city. 

Tutors provide one-on-one reading instruction for students ages 6-18. You don’t need any prior experience teaching or working with children, just a love of reading and a desire to help a child succeed.

• Time Commitment: One hour per week, Monday-Friday 3-6pm or Saturday 10-2pm.
• Training: A one hour training session and a site orientation is required before your first session. You may also shadow a session, and in-depth trainings occur 3-4 times each year.
• How to Apply: Submit our Volunteer Application and select “Tutoring” as your preferred volunteer area.

If you would like more information, please email Fernanda@test.newhavenreads.org.

Mike has been volunteering at Bristol Street’s Book Bank for over 10 years! No matter how
much time passes, Mike always carries the same passion for putting books into people’s hands
for free. He recalled a serendipitous moment during his time volunteering: one time, there was a
large donation of Spanish books—and on the next day, there was a book order for Spanish
books. He has been an avid fan of the fantasy genre since his childhood when his father would
buy books from estate sales, owning enough to have two layer deep bookshelves. One of his
favorite books as a child was Half Magic by Edward Eager, and some of his past favorites
include The Pushcart War by Jean Merrill and Black and Blue Magic by Zilpha Keatley Snyder.
Mike is also an avid fan of Isaac Asimov’s works. He also has the incredible talent of being able
to read Latin and ancient Greek!

If you would  like to learn more about volunteering at New Haven Reads, click here!

ATTENTION TEACHERS

2023-24 field trips are here! New Haven Reads offers field trips for Pre-K through 5th grade classes in the Greater New Haven area. Students will have an opportunity to choose 5 free books to take home and hear a story…or a few! We look forward to seeing you this school year!
To sign up go to: https://calendly.com/vsmith-5cg/field-trip find the date you would like, and sign up through the link.
If you have any questions, you can check out our FAQ: https://newhavenreads.org/programs/field-trips
or email books@test.newhavenreads.org

We can’t wait to see your class this school year!

We are excited to share that we will be working along with New Haven Public Schools and several other local organizations to help pilot the New Haven Tutoring Initiative. NHR will be providing the literacy education training, similar to our one-on-one tutoring,

In addition to New Haven Reads,  LEAP, the Boys and Girls Club, Horizons at the Foote, Inspired Communities, New Haven Counts, and New Hytes will all include tutoring in their programs.

To read more about this initiative and how you can be a part of it click here!

Reading is beneficial for individuals of all ages, especially young children. In fact, a report by the Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Center found that even before children begin to talk, they need to hear language to support their brain development. One of the best ways parents can facilitate this process is by reading a variety of books to their children.

However, there are other reasons you should start holding regular reading sessions with your child. Here are more benefits you can reap from the activity:

They stimulate creativity

Most children’s books feature diverse themes ranging from fantasy to slice-of-life stories. Because of this, young readers are encouraged to use their creativity and imagination to visualize the people, places, and things you read to them across various books. They are also challenged to think of numerous possibilities that may happen in the story and even learn problem-solving strategies and innovative perspectives from the protagonist’s journey. As a result, reading stimulates creativity and ignites the curiosity and enthusiasm of children to learn concepts outside of their usual surroundings. So when planning to read books with your child, ensure that you introduce a variety of books to expose them to different exciting scenarios.

They foster literacy development

Literacy development is a multifaceted process. Maryville University defined literacy development as the process of learning words, sounds, and language. When young children start to familiarize themselves with the structures of language, their phonological awareness begins to develop. In turn, this awareness helps them progress into developing their early reading and writing skills. However, young children cannot learn words and sounds independently. This is where enriching activities such as joint reading and storytelling become essential: they help children learn to distinguish words and sounds. If you want to give your child an advantage in literacy development, performing reading-related activities is a great strategy to consider.

They improve verbal abilities

In relation to our previous point, reading also improves the verbal abilities of young children. A study released in Frontiers Psychology reveals that children can become capable of communicating with their teachers, even when they’re still in a developmental stage, with the help of shared reading interactions with books. Moreover, reading enables children to expand their vocabulary. With this, the researchers conclude that shared book reading fosters critical communicative abilities in children. This includes phonological awareness, speech fluency, and connections with previous knowledge. All these things eventually form the foundation for language comprehension and vocabulary acquisition. This shows that reading to your child improves both their verbal and non-verbal communication skills.

They promote stronger parent-child relationships

Lastly, reading to your child can help you form stronger bonds with them. According to researchers from New York University, shared book reading provides a wonderful opportunity for parents and children to connect since the activity increases the reported parental warmth and sensitivity experienced by parents. This enables you to better address the needs of your kids, resulting in healthy and early parent-child relationships that can persist even after childhood. Ultimately, reading offers various positive benefits that go beyond linguistic and cognitive development. So the next time your child has a reading session, make sure to be there and read with them.

Reading to your child can provide a host of holistic developmental benefits. However, doing so should not be a one-time activity. In our article on ‘NHR’s Top Five Tips to Prevent Summer Slide,’ we discussed that children who don’t read regularly lose about two to three months of reading development. That’s why regular reading sessions are important even when children are out of school. You can do this by visiting local public libraries or simply reading a book with your child before bedtime.

To learn more about how you can help your child in their education journey, visit our website at New Haven Reads.

Specially written for NewHavenREADS.org
By: Rishelle Judith

We had an amazing evening at our Tell Me Why It Works: The Science Behind Reading panel discussion. There were 150 people in the audience at Barack Obama Magnet University School while over 300 watched the livestream. Our panelists included Emily Hanford, Dr. Kymyona Burke, Dr. Tamu Lucero, Amy Dowell, and Amy Stockton. Our moderator was Margie Gillis of Literacy How. Everyone shared a different perspective about the science behind reading and it’s importance in using it in our school systems.

You can view the recorded livestream from the “Right to Read” Twitter account here!

You can also view the full digital program here.