LITERACY LEARNING SERIES
Why Literacy?
GO West Contra Costa is excited to announce the start of our newest Community-Led Committee (CLC) focused on literacy. The CLCs — made up of parents, caregivers, and community members — are designed to combine our community leadership programming and policy work in a way that allows members to fully drive the advocacy cycle from beginning to end.
The literacy CLC is rooted in the belief that reading, writing, and comprehension are the core foundations of learning. For students to reach their full potential, they must be systematically taught using the five core elements of reading instruction: Comprehension, Fluency, Vocabulary, Phonics, and Phonemic Awareness. Unfortunately, across California, less than half of students are at or above level in reading, and access to research-based reading instruction is inconsistent at best. Even worse, between the pressures of the pandemic, rising inflation, and the inequities our community has always faced, it has become increasingly hard for families to access literature and tutoring services to support their children’s literacy development.
GO WCC Literacy Series
We know that reading on grade level by the end of third grade is a hallmark of other important life indicators, GO is prioritizing efforts on literacy from TK through third grade with the hope of dramatically increasing the number of students leaving third grade on reading level.
The initial step is a series of trainings for families on supporting literacy development at home. The sessions will empower families to engage with their child’s teacher to gather vital information on reading progress and related resources to build skills at home. We are working to prepare families to continue reading development over the summer, minimizing the learning gap seen after long school breaks.