National PTA today announced a new Family Reading Experience program to be hosted by local PTAs in cities across the United States. Amazon Kindle will be the exclusive sponsor. Throughout 2013, National PTA and Kindle will work together to encourage family involvement with their children’s reading. As the “Official E-reader of the National PTA,” Amazon Kindle will donate Kindles for National PTA to distribute to PTAs in low-income or at-risk schools.
The PTA Family Reading Experience activities focus on improving the reading skills of children between kindergarten and fifth grade. The program is designed to be easy for PTAs to implement events within their schools and to help teach strategies to parents and other adults for participating in their children’s reading process, with the goals of improving their children’s reading comprehension and motivation.
The program brings together phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, comprehension and vocabulary, and includes activities with both physical books and e-books. National PTA developed the curriculum in consultation with family engagement and literacy experts. National PTA has piloted the PTA Family Reading Experience in ten schools in Baltimore, MD and Albuquerque, NM and received positive feedback.
National PTA will make the curriculum available for PTAs nationwide starting in March—National Reading Month. PTA parents interested in bringing the PTA Family Reading Experience, Powered by Kindle, to their schools can learn more at PTA.org/familyreading. PTA membership is required to access the full set of program resources.