GILROY
– Gilroy public school students will have no excuses for apathy
toward reading and writing after next week. During the second
annual celebration of
”
Love of Literacy Week,
”
Nov. 17 to 21, schools, businesses and families will focus on
the value and joy of reading by participating in literacy
activities throughout the community.
By Lori Stuenkel
GILROY – Gilroy public school students will have no excuses for apathy toward reading and writing after next week. During the second annual celebration of “Love of Literacy Week,” Nov. 17 to 21, schools, businesses and families will focus on the value and joy of reading by participating in literacy activities throughout the community.
“The real goal of Love of Literacy Week is to impress upon everyone in this community the importance of reading and writing, how valuable this is as a lifetime skill,” said Jacki Horejs, assistant superintendent of educational services.
The Gilroy Unified School District-sponsored event will involve the entire community. Local “celebrities,” including City Council members and school district employees, will visit schools to read books aloud to students. Throughout next week, every Gilroyan is encouraged to spend time immersed in a book that fascinates them.
“We try to have everyone in the community, not just the schools, to focus on literacy activities,” Horejs said.
One way everyone can participate is by turning off the TV Tuesday night. Schools will have their own individual TV black-out nights and GUSD is asking residents to join in for “Turn off the TV Tuesday.” Rather than flip on the tube and watch reruns or “Joe Millionaire,” people are asked to pick up a book and read with their families.
“The schools can’t do it alone, it takes everyone,” Horejs said.
As part of the so-called “Card ‘Em All” program, students will be encouraged to head to the Gilroy Public Library to sign up for a library card.
“We would like to raise the awareness that every student in Gilroy – actually every adult in Gilroy – should have a library card,” Horejs said. “Have you looked to see if you have a current library card? If not, this is the week.”
First-time library cards are offered at no cost while replacement cards cost $1, said Lani Yoshimura, Gilroy’s head librarian. Applicants must bring picture identification and a current address in the form of a driver’s license or recent bill. Parents may accompany their children to provide address verification, but children may also come on their own with a school I.D. card.
Students at each school will read during class and at home. Some schools will participate in DEAR time, which stands for “Drop Everything And Read.” Several schools are also focusing on the “Just Read” program, in which students track how many pages and books they read throughout the week to earn prizes. At Eliot Elementary School, students in some classes will bring their favorite stuffed animal as a reading partner. South Valley Middle School students will read at home to their brothers and sisters.
“We want children to embrace reading as one of those activities they’ll use their whole lives,” Horejs said.
The literacy push will be high-tech, as well. As he did last year, Rob van Herk, GUSD’s manager of information technology, will replace the traditional GUSD home page with information about the week’s events and links to literacy-centered Web sites. A link on the page will direct visitors back to the normal GUSD home page.
Gilroy High School students will participate in a national essay-writing contest sponsored by the Library of Congress and Target stores. Called Letters About Literature, the contest focuses on both reading and writing, inviting students to write letters to their favorite authors, alive or dead, explaining how the book changed or became a part of their lives.
The school’s first-place winner will receive $50 and the second-place winner gets $25. Top entries will also be submitted to the state and national competitions.
“I think there’s a lot of excitement,” said Madeline DeRollo, a literacy facilitator at GHS. “I think kids will get in to writing about an author.”
DeRollo said English teachers at the high school are looking forward to encouraging students to connect with a book that has effected some personal change or had a noticeable impact on their lives.
A poetry reading by Maria Garcia Tabor will take place in the GHS theater on Tuesday during lunch. Tabor, a published poet and writer of short stories, is an English instructor at Hartnell College in Salinas.
Students will decorate posters honoring favorite books and will create “portals” above the doorways to various classrooms to celebrate literacy across disciplines. For each subject, such as English, social studies or science, classroom doors will announce the different ways reading and writing are used in the workplace.
“They’re really going to be focusing … on the reading and writing that professionals do in their careers,” Horejs said. “We want people to understand that literacy is a lifetime activity and and it’s really the gateway to success in this community.”
GHS students will also spread the “Love of Literacy” message by collecting books for residents of a small village in the Philippines. One of GHS’s literacy facilitators has been in contact with a local doctor from Mainit, who is seeking book donations for the villagers.
