All 700 students in the Brandywine Heights Elementary and Intermediate schools read to a partner, celebrating World Read Aloud Day on Feb. 16.
This was the first time Brandywine participated in World Read Aloud Day.
Elementary School Principal Stephanie Kelly and Intermediate/Middle Schools Principal Robert Farina, who both organized the day’s reading partnership, said the World Read Aloud Day was a great opportunity to connect both the elementary and intermediate/middle school buildings.
“Get the kids to partner up and show off their reading skills to one another. Maybe make new friends,” said Kelly.
World Read Aloud Day is celebrated across the world and Brandywine’s participation this year was suggested by one of the teachers, explained Kelly. What was new for Brandywine Heights was partnering students from the elementary school with those from the intermediate/middle school.
“We thought being our schools are in such close proximity this is a good way to unite the schools, have my students come down and see where they went to elementary, have the elementary students come up and see where they’ll be going to the intermediate school. Give them an opportunity to collaborate, read a favorite story to one another,” said Farina. “It’s a great way to get everybody together.”
First graders visited the intermediate school and were paired with fourth graders. Pre-K and Kindergarten students were paired with third graders at the elementary school. Fifth graders visited the elementary school and were paired with second graders.
“It’s neat just the connections the students have. We’re such a small tight community that my students are coming out saying I know this student and I know that student. They get a chance to read to somebody who may be a neighbor or somebody they see on the playground. It’s just a neat way for them to interact differently than they do outside of school,” said Farina. “Especially for our younger students, it’s great for them to see the older students have a passion for reading and for our older students to share what they’ve learned and how they’ve become stronger readers.”
Second grade teacher Lindsay Yeakel loves that the Read Aloud Day gives students a chance to show what they know and what they have learned.
“It’s really cool to see the collaboration between the two,” said Yeakel. “It encourages reading because it’s helping them practice their reading skills and it’s helping them get excited about show off what they learned to an older student… Showcase that they really are good readers in second grade.”
Third grade teacher Bob Hogan also said it was neat to see his third graders become role models for the younger students.
“You see a different side of the third graders,” said Hogan. “Maybe it’ll inspire them to work with their younger brother or sister or inspire them to do other kinds of volunteer work or something down the road.”
Superintendent Andrew Potteiger agreed that the World Read Aloud Day at Brandywine was a wonderful opportunity to connect students to one another. He likes that the two principals collaborated together. One initiative Potteiger aims to achieve is to connect students across grade levels. The Read Aloud Day achieves that by connecting elementary students with intermediate/middle school students, he said.
“We’re bringing all our students together K-5. They’re working together, reading, collaborating, sharing,” said Potteiger. “When that older student is there, they’re listening, their quiet, they’re enthralled. So it’s been a great experience today to see our older students become the role models and reading to our younger students and our younger students looking up and admiring those older students.”
“Great idea, great initiative and all the credit to our principals for organizing this,” said Potteiger. “It goes with my goal which is creating that unified district, creating that community type school feel.”
