The McDuffie County School System is pleased to announce that the Governor’s Office of Student Achievement has awarded the district a $20,000 Early Language & Literacy Mini-Grant to implement the Beyond the Book Project. The Beyond the Book Project will harness existing resources while building a collaborative partnership between the McDuffie County School System and external stakeholders such the Thomson-McDuffie County Library. Literacy champions – trained Pre-K through fifth grade teacher-leaders – will use materials from Scholastic, the Georgia Department of Education, the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning, and Comprehensive Reading Solutions to create an age-appropriate continuum of language and literacy development skills for children ages birth to eight.
The literacy champions will also host monthly workshops to build the capacity of families to support their children’s literacy development at home. Session topics may include reading to babies, letter-sound recognition, producing rhyming words, developing vocabulary, connecting prior experiences to stories, determining main idea, and using supporting details to develop comprehension. Family workshops will also focus on the transition to pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, and upper elementary school. During each session, families will be provided age-appropriate materials, books, and/or tip sheets that can be used at home with children to support literacy and language development.
The McDuffie County School System looks forward to integrating the Early Language & Literacy Mini-Grant as a complement to its current guided reading instruction program in the elementary grades. The district is committed to academic excellence with a focus on rigor, relevance and relationships.