Hundreds of Duval County elementary school students joined thousands of people around the world as teachers, celebrities and local officials read Eric Carle's book,
The Very Hungry Caterpillar, as part of Jumpstart's Read for the Record annual event.
The Read for the Record event is a national campaign designed to break the world record for the largest shared reading experience ever, while also working to break the cycle of illiteracy by putting books in the homes of children who need them most. The program focuses on helping these students make gains in crucial language and literacy skills.
To kick off the festivities in Duval County, Superintendent Ed Pratt-Dannals read to a group of Pre-k students and their families at the Sallye B. Mathis Parent Involvement Center (PIC).
"Current research overwhelmingly supports the importance of facilitating early and emerging literacy skills in preschool-age children as a critical foundation for literacy development," said Pratt-Dannals. "Jumpstart's Read for the Record is a positive way to raise awareness about the importance of early childhood literacy skills."
Several schools throughout the district participated in the reading event, including
S.P. Livingston,
Pinedale,
Chaffee Trail, and
Twin Lakes Academy elementary schools, and
John E. Ford K-8.
The star reader at the John E. Ford event was Eli Rodriguez, a 10th-grader at Forrest High School. Eli read a Spanish version of Carle's book to Pre-K and Kindergarten students enrolled in the school’s Spanish Immersion Program.
Eli was chosen to participate because of his involvement in the district’s World Languages Department's Little Language Learners Service-Learning Project, where high school students and teachers promote language learning to students in elementary school.
For more pictures from the Read for the Record event, visit the
DCPS' flickr Photostream.
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