School librarian Karen Rousseau and I met this morning at the Westhampton Elementary School to plan our Bright Spot Reading-to-Dogs Program which will take place during the school day next year.
We decided to involve two therapy dog teams that will work with grades one through four. The Program will be conducted during the students’ regularly scheduled time in the school library each week. As done with the pilot after-school-program, each child will have a twenty-minute reading time one-on-one with the reading dog. Part of the learning process will involve having the child select a book ahead of time and practice reading it in preparation for his/her reading time with the dog. The dog will provide the patient, listening ear as the child reads aloud to him, developing confidence and fluency.
Karen and I foresee lots of possibilities with this… perhaps the students might write and create their own book to read to the dog… the possiblities are endless and things will develop as we launch the program and watch it develop. We’re both very excited about working together on this special program in an effort to promote a love of reading.
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