"...those who read a lot will enhance their verbal intelligence;
that is, reading will make them smarter... "
-
Professors Anne E. Cunningham & Keith E Stanovich
(University of California, Berkeley & University of Toronto, respectively)
From their study: 'What reading does for the mind' found in American Educator
In this newsletter:
  • November Literacy Resources: Native American Literacy Month, Family Literacy Month AND National Picture Book month!
  • Family Literacy Calendar
  • Why Our Efforts are Crucial: Education Loss from the Pandemic
  • Community Highlight - Franklin Park Zoo
  • Rodman Ride Update - We Beat Our Goal!
  • Who is Supporting RAR-MA?
November Literacy Resources
Recursos de alfabetización de noviembre
November Literacy Resources

It's National Native American Literacy Month!​ Here are some books we recommend to recognize this month with your young reader: ​

  • My Heart Fills with Happiness by Monique Gray Smith 
  • Fry Bread: A Native American Family Story by Kevin Noble Maillard 
  • We Are Grateful: Otsaliheliga by Traci Sorell ​

Oftentimes, Indigeneous stories are told in a historical context, but their stories are very much contemporary. It is important to read stories from Indigenous authors to hear their narrative in their own words. 

Our friends at the Malden Public Library have a list of books you can explore to learn more about these communities: https://bit.ly/3V7shW4

Some other reasons to read:

November is also National Family Literacy Month AND National Picture Book Month!

ReadBrightly has a compiled a list of their favorite collections of picture books, ranging from “6 Lyrical Picture Books That Encourage a Love of Poetry” to “15 Colorful Books to Brighten Up the Dark Days of Winter”
Family Literacy Activities
Actividades de Alfabetización Para la Familia
Our Family Literacy Calendar is a handy day-by-day resource of simple literacy-building activities and fun that you and your family can easily do at home!

¡Nuestro Calendario de Alfabetización Familiar es un recurso útil para el día a día con actividades sencillas de alfabetización y diversión que usted y su familia pueden hacer fácilmente en casa!
A Troubling National Report Card, Massachusetts Scores, and the Case for RAR-MA
Children, their families, and their teachers can all tell you: COVID-19 upended many areas of life over the last few years. The most recent Nation’s Report Card from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) puts some alarming figures to the setbacks from pandemic-related interruptions to learning. 
We saw a continued decline in third grade reading proficiency levels in every core RAR-MA community (except Boston) - which had been selected as RAR-MA operational bases because of low third grade reading test scores (DESE School & District Profiles).

The implications are particularly severe for RAR-MA’s children and families given that NAEP’s findings show “scores for lower-performing age 9 students declined more than scores for higher-performing students compared to 2020.” 

RAR-MA sees an opportunity to collaborate with families and early educators to create more positive early experiences that protect children against negative health and educational outcomes. Dialogic reading used as late as first grade, with as little as two hours of reading over twelve weeks, still “reduced the reading comprehension gap between at-risk readers and typically-achieving peers” (Moore, Durwin, and Carroll, 2018). Applying RAR-MA’s evidence-based intervention at a formative stage provides children with an early literacy foundation that shows a return on investment as soon as they enter school and paves the way for a lifetime of opportunity. 

Read the Nation’s Report Card here

**Core communities are Boston, Brockton, Chelsea, Everett, Holyoke, Lawrence, Lowell, Lynn, Malden, Revere, and Springfield.
RAR-MA Community Spotlight: Fun at the Franklin Park Zoo!
A big thanks to our amazing Community Ambassadors, RAR-MA team members, our hosts, Zoo New England and a cooperative New England Fall day for a wonderful event to close out the month! 

Families were treated to spirited read-alouds in multiple languages, some animal-inspired dancing, and a great day to be at at The Franklin Park Zoo! 
Rodman Ride Update:
We did it! Another successful year!

A big thank you to our Emerging Leaders Board for spearheading this event and thank you to the members for pushing towards your goals this summer.

And thank you to all of you who supported us by donating, riding, walking, reading, and adventuring - we hope to see you all next year!
‌
Who's Supporting RAR-MA?
The work we do toward helping young learners cannot be done without the generosity and thoughtfulness of our partners in our mission. We are so grateful to count the following organizations for their support:

  • DCU for Kids
  • AZW Law P.C.
  • Don & Pam Hawley
  • Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation
  • John Gorham
  • Mio Takenaka
  • Nan Haar Legacy Foundation


Thank you all so much, from the entire RAR-MA community.
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