What Are Your 2018 Resolutions? 

ARA - Continuing Our Resolution to Improve Literacy in Arkansas

Three Rivers Reading Council

Some exciting things have been happening in the Three Rivers Reading Council. On Oct. 24th Amy Daniels, a local financial advisor, presented a session to our group about financial literacy. Her presentation was entitled "Five Money Questions for Women".  She gave us valuable information about how to prepare for the future. During this meeting she also present Three Rivers with a check for $500 to support our Young Writer's Contest and book drive for the local children's home. We also discussed with her the many other opportunities to serve our community. She serves the board for several organizations and gave us contact information so we could possibly work with them on future projects.

 

Books to be passed out to the local children's home and, possibly, the local homeless shelter have been ordered using some local funds and money from the ARA literacy grant. The books should arrive just in time for Christmas.  

 

Arkansas River Valley Reading Council

Arkansas River Valley Reading Council helped students at Johnson County Westside Elementary in Hartman celebrate International Literacy Day on September 8, 2017.  Children celebrated the day by dressing up as their favorite book character.  The AR Valley Council officers served as judges for the contest and provided prizes for the top winners.  Over 100 students participated.  Media Specialist Jill Fields hopes to make this an annual event at Westside Elementary and continue to partner with the local council.  Pictured below are the winners.

Arkadelphia Area Reading Council

On October 8th, the council had a great first meeting.  Ms. Kaila Murphy shared information about the state level activities and benefits available to members on the ARA website.  Attendees also learned about participating in Jumpstart Read for the Record.  We had six new members join and several renew their memberships at this meeting. On October 19th, our members participated in Jumpstart Read for Record.  Perritt Primary invited a special guest from the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission to read the book Quackers to the entire school.  Central Primary and Peake Elementary literacy teachers also read the book to their classes.

On November 16th-17th, our council had 11 members attend the ARA state conference in Little Rock.  Perritt Primary, Central Primary, Peake Elementary, and Goza Middle School were represented.  Our members attended many wonderful training sessions.  Peake Elementary teachers were excited to learn about ways to inspire writing from speaker Brad Herzog.  They also purchased a book that was written by his son, Luke Herzog, and published when Luke was nine years old.  Peake teachers are hoping to inspire their fourth graders to believe that they can be good writers at their age by sharing the book with their students.  Another highlight of the conference for our members was the keynote speaker, Danny Brassell, author of The Reading Makeover.  Members were excited to learn new ideas and strategies for motivating students to love literacy.

Our council’s next meeting will be in January at Dawson Education Cooperative’s Maker Space.  Our members will be given a tour of the opportunities available in the Maker Space room and for checkout to be used in their classrooms

Grant County Reading Council 

GCRC has provided almost 1,000 books this year by participating in several school and community events including: 

I Can of Arkansas Birthday Bash (September)

International Literacy Day Book Character Parade (September 8th)

Poyen Fall Festival (October) 

East End Holiday Parade (November)

ARA Literacy Conference

Grant County Christmas on the Square (December)

 

North Central Arkansas Reading Council

NCARC reported that they had a great time in December with at the Faulkner County Library in Conway where members read holiday stories to children and had them participate in STEM projects. 

 

ARA SEEKS BOARD NOMINEES

ARA is currently seeking nominations for the positions of Vice President, Parliamentarian, and Treasurer. All nominees must be current members of ILA and ARA. Vice President nominees must have served as a local reading council president. The person named must agree to his/her name being placed in nomination, and self-nominations are also accepted.

For more information about the duties or responsibilities of these positions please contact any current board member or Nominations Chair Dorothy Pollett at Dorothy@arareading.org.  The nomination form is found on the ARA website. Go to About Us > Committees or click here.  

Jeanne Trawick, ILA Coordinator, reminds everyone that nominations for local council positions will be coming up soon also.  Please consider taking a leadership position.  

Celebrate Literacy Awards Due January 15

Local councils may nominate up to three honorees – a community leader, an educator, and an organization/agency that have made significant contributions to literacy in Arkansas.  From these council nominees, three state awards are presented at the Council Leadership Institute in July. 

Applications may be found on the ARA web page (see the homepage or Awards and Grants page) and should be sent to Rochelle Dalton, Literacy Chair.  Email: rochelledalton@sheridanschools.org  or snail mail: 3402 Shamrock Pine Bluff 71603.  Click here.

February 1 Deadline for School-based Literacy Grant

Current members of the Arkansas Reading Association are invited to submit proposals for a School-based Literacy Grant not to exceed $500 for the upcoming school year. Proposals should be written for classroom research projects in instructional methods, non-traditional approaches, parent involvement, independent reading, book publishing, or new techniques and/or strategies, for example. Grant funds may be used for such items as children's trade books, consumable materials, audiovisual materials and equipment, and conference or workshop expenses. Activities and expenditures such as these will be given priority over use of grant funds to purchase complete commercial programs.

The proposal (not longer than 5 pages) should be submitted online to Vicki King.  Click here for more information.The proposal must be sent by February 1.