First Lady Crissy Haslam Participates in Family Reading Night

Friday, August 29, 2014 | 05:42am

First Lady Haslam visits Arlington Elementary School to encourage families to spend quality time reading together

NASHVILLE – First Lady Crissy Haslam last night visited Arlington Elementary School in Jackson, TN to participate in their Family Reading Night. The school’s monthly event encourages families to spend quality time reading together and helps to increase parental involvement in education and improve students’ literacy skills.  This month’s Family Reading Night highlighted the First Lady’s Read20 Book of the Month, Phyllis Reynolds’ Shiloh, and families participated in activities planned around the book.

“I am thrilled to encourage reading with Arlington Elementary families,” Mrs. Haslam said. “Parents have the power to boost their children's learning potential by making books an integral and enjoyable part of their lives.”

Mrs. Haslam hosted a special Read20 Family Book Club program for families in the school’s library to discuss the Book of the Month and the importance of daily reading. As part of their Summer Reading Challenge program, Scholastic donated more than 500 copies of Reynolds’ Shiloh to Arlington Elementary School students in May 2014 for families to read the book over the summer in preparation for Mrs. Haslam’s visit.

On the state report card, Arlington Elementary scored below average in reading and the school has been working hard to improve students’ literacy skills. In addition to Family Reading Night, they have launched initiatives such as Big Brothers, Big Sisters Reading Club for older students to help younger students with their reading skills and a Jackson Reads Millions, Cardinals Read 20 program setting a goal for each student to read at least one million words each year, encouraging parents and students to read at home for 20 minutes every day.

“Interactive reading experiences can be a great way to foster love for reading early in life,” Mrs. Haslam said. “I am very proud that Arlington Elementary is taking a creative approach to improving their students’ literacy skills.”  

For more information about the Read20 Family Book Club, visit www.tn.gov/read20, www.facebook.com/CrissyHaslam, or follow @Read20TN on Twitter.

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