ORCA Celebrates Read Across America Day
By Rachael Tullar, Oregon Charter Academy Digital Librarian
Reading is a foundational skill that heavily influences a student’s educational success. Studies show that one in six kids who are not proficient readers by the third grade do not graduate high school on time, further demonstrating why it’s so critical for educators to focus on building strong reading skills in students of all ages. Read Across America Day is one of those efforts.
Held on March 2 this year, Read Across America is part of a more extensive program run by the National Education Association focused on motivating children and teens to read. Educators and students across the country — including at the Oregon Charter Academy (ORCA) — will participate in special reading-related programs and activities to celebrate this special day.
Promoting Reading at ORCA
Reading benefits students in so many ways. Not only does it help them perform better in school, but reading also has the incredible power to create empathy by exposing students to unfamiliar worlds and ideas. Most importantly, reading can be a lot of fun, which is why, as ORCA educators, we do whatever we can to inspire a love of reading in our students, whether it’s connected to our curriculum or simply done for pleasure. Here are a few ways we do that:
The Digital Library
One of our best reading assets is our digital library which includes 4,750 eBooks, 449 audiobooks and 59 magazine subscriptions our students can download to their school-supplied devices. The digital library helps students filter titles based on their interests and discover new reading opportunities through the curated collections our teachers create. Students can also request particular titles if they aren’t already available. With so many options at their fingertips, kids can discover their reading niche and dig in to find more of what they really love.
Monthly Reading Challenges
Every month, ORCA educators send reading challenges to our elementary, middle and high school students' language arts classes. These challenges are designed to expose students to new themes, help them discover new titles or encourage them to engage more deeply with the books they read through art projects and sharing.
Extracurricular Book Club
ORCA also sponsors a book club where students pick a title they can read together. The club gathers monthly to discuss what they've read and vote on the next book. ORCA's Book Club is an optional extracurricular activity open to anyone who wants to share their love of reading with their peers.
What are ORCA Students Reading?
Our efforts are paying off because ORCA students love to read, particularly if they can dive into an immersive series. Our elementary students enjoy reading graphic novels like Dav Pilkey's Dog Man and Cat Kid series, Jeff Kinney's Diary of a Wimpy Kid adventures and Raina Telgemeier's Smile, Sisters and Guts books.
ORCA middle schoolers love the Real Friends graphic novels by Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham, the Redwall series by Brian Jacques and Kelly Yang's Front Desk books. Our high schoolers are all about fantasy, with books like Legendborn by Tracy Deonn, Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi and the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas as favorites.
Read Across America Day Activities
We want to keep our momentum going as we approach Read Across America Day and beyond, so we've planned several special events throughout March to celebrate. To start, we're going to read across Oregon by highlighting famous local authors like Ken Keesey, Ursula K. LeGuin, John Kraukaur, Renee Watson and Beverly Cleary.
We're also planning a couple of in-person events to support Read Across America Day. Near the end of February, we're gathering in Wilsonville for a storytime and craft project centered around our March book, Dream Street by Tricia Elam Walker. Towards the end of March, ORCA students will also participate in a walking field trip through Portland to see the locations featured prominently in Beverly Cleary's Ramona Quimby books.
Spreading the Love of Reading Together
We're excited to celebrate Read Across America Day with fun activities for our students and by encouraging our community to come together to promote literacy and lifelong learning. So, whether you choose to read one of your favorite books, pick up something new or visit your local library, we hope you'll use this day to spread the love of reading with the young learners in your life.
If you'd like to learn more about ORCA’s reading programs or the benefits of attending a virtual school, please join us for one of our monthly virtual information sessions, where you'll have the opportunity to connect with ORCA staff and preview our learning platform. We hope to see you there!