The Maynardville Public Library is launching a new reading incentive program for Union County elementary school-aged children. Through this program, the library offers kids incentives for reading and a buddy sloth to read to every day.
What’s more, this year-round program is completely free. The idea is adapted from Kim Todd’s “Read to a Pal” program at Luttrell Public Library, in which children can choose from a variety of stuffed animals to adopt and read books to.
Chantay Collins, Maynardville’s librarian, was troubled by seeing the kids getting frustrated with being tested for the speed at which they could read when they are still trying to learn. She feels strongly that elementary-aged children should be encouraged to read with comprehension before they are pushed to speed read.
Collins woke up one morning having dreamed about a sloth, and how appropriate it was as a reading mascot. Who doesn’t like the sloth? Who doesn’t know it’s a very slow-moving creature, but adorable. So the SLOTH program was born.
SLOTH stands for Slow down, Learn, Overcome obstacles, Think, and be Happy. Collins believes that once children start learning to read more smoothly they will enjoy it. Children are not all the same, so we need a new approach to enhance their reading skills and make reading more enjoyable. The intention is to pair this program with reading tutors. The library will provide a safe place for tutoring, and is asking for community volunteers. No special training is required, just a willingness to read with a child.
The next piece of the puzzle was to find the sloths, and God’s hand just seems to keep moving to open doors for this program. Collins found adorable 14” plush sloths for only $1 each. A wonderful bargain for the more than 1,400 children to be served by this program. The sloths come in four colors: cocoa, tan, brown, and light pink. Tameka Chesney is laminating the birth certificates and printing the tickets in-house. “The Illustrated Author” Melissa Stevens donated her skills to create a SLOTH logo for this program.
The adoption process is much like the Cabbage Patch Kids. The sloths will each come with a unique name, they will have a birthday, weight, etc. To adopt a sloth, the child agrees to “feed” the sloth by reading aloud to it for 20 minutes per day, 7 days per week. The child can read whatever they want to their sloth. The library will supply tickets for parents to check off as their child completes their reading goal each day and the child writes their name on the bottom.
Children can then turn in either single completed tickets for small bubble gum size prizes or they can accumulate several tickets and turn them in for bigger prizes such as movie tickets. Collins would love to be able to give the children a book for each month completed, if sufficient funding becomes available.
The first shipment of sloths should arrive at the library the first week of March, and the program will kick off on Monday, March 16, at Big Ridge Elementary School. All of the schools should have sloths by the end of the school year, and in future years incoming Kindergarteners will receive sloths. This is not just a summer reading program, but a three-year trial to track reading performance of the children in Union County.
Collins would love to see the schools participate in friendly competition. She will have a SLOTH page on the library website to track the cumulative reading time of all SLOTH program participants, and the kids can see the sloth slowly work its way up a tree.
Initial funding for this program comes from Friends of the Library. Collins is applying for multiple grants for this reading program to replenish the funds and keep it going. Her long-term goal is to see our children’s reading comprehension show measurable improvement.
Based on the Tennessee Child Wellbeing Report from October of 2019, Union ranks 86th out of the 95 counties in Tennessee; and only 24.3% of our children in 3rd through 8th grade are proficient at reading.
This “Unfun fact” raises the question: Why should you care even if you don’t have children? We project our housing needs for jails and prisons 10 years from now based on 3rd-grade reading levels.
Collins has presented this program to the Health Council, as it falls in line with our needs as determined by our community health assessment last year. She will be speaking next month to the Lions Club and other community organizations to educate the community about the program and to seek additional volunteers and funding.
You can be involved in the success of these kids. First, if you have or know a child in Kindergarten-5th grade, encourage them to read to you. Second, you can volunteer as a tutor to sit at the library with a child and allow a child to read to you or, for the younger children, you can read to them. Lastly, you can donate prizes for the children to earn through the SLOTH reading program.
To learn more about this and other programs at a library near you, please visit: https://www.maynardvillepubliclibrary.org/; or https://www.luttrelllibrary.org/.