By Crystal Merck

Rowan-Salisbury Schools

According to research, “the most accurate predictor of a student’s achievement in school is not income or social status but the extent to which a student’s family creates a home environment that encourages learning, expresses high (but not unrealistic) expectations for their children’s achievement and future careers and a family that becomes involved in their children’s education at school and in the community.”

The Rowan-Salisbury Schools system wants to partner with the community to extend learning past the walls of a brick-and -mortar building and into homes and daily lives.

The system has provided several resources to parents and caregivers so they can help build literacy skills with students.

Extended Learning

The district has partnered with Ready Rosie, Achieve 3000 and Smarty Ants and Discovery Education to provide learning that extends beyond a child’s typical school day.

• Ready Rosie is a free resource for all parents and caregivers in Rowan County. To sign up for this free resource, go to https://readyrosie.com/register/.

Once you have signed up, you will receive three text messages per week with a short one to two-minute video demonstrating a literacy skill that you can practice with your child at home. The videos are quick, exciting and presented in a way so that students will think it is all about play.

If you have a child between the ages of birth to third grade, or know a friend or neighbor that has children in this age range, be sure to share how to sign up for Ready Rosie.

•Achieve3000 and Smarty Ants are district wide resources available to all students in grades K-12.

Smarty Ants provides our kindergarten through second-grade students with additional support with the basic early literacy skill of phonics.

Achieve 3000 supports our third- through 12th-grade students with developing critical thinking skills, close reading, writing and how to comprehend non-fiction text.

Students have access to both of these resources outside of the school day.

Student and school award recognitions

Research shows that if students read at least 40 Achieve3000 articles, with a 75 percent or higher accuracy rate, they will make significant growth in their reading score.

Ask your students how many articles they have read, what they are reading about and to share an interesting fact about something they have learned from Achieve3000.

As students reach the benchmarks of 40 articles read, 80 articles read and 120 articles read, they will receive a bracelet to celebrate their accomplishments. In addition, the system will be awarding the top elementary, middle and high school a banner each month to celebrate the top achieving school. Will your child’s school be next month’s winner?

Discovery Education

Discovery Education provides students with online tech books. The students are able to access these resources at home via their Discovery Ed login, which keeps their text right at their fingertips. The techbook is standards-based with content that is relevant and dynamic for students, too. Students can also use their favorite reading strategy, such as annotating, to access the text virtually.

LiveBinder

This year the district is launching RSS Parent Resource LiveBinder. This LiveBinder is designed to support parents and caregivers as they help build literacy skills with your children. To locate the Parent Resource LiveBinder go to: rss.k12.nc.us.

Scroll down to the link that says “Click here for RSS Parent Resources.” This link will take you to the Parent Resource Literacy LiveBinder.

LiveBinder has a wealth of resources to support you and your children with literacy.

LiveBinder tutorials

If you would like to view a quick parent tutorial, for how to navigate to the LiveBinder, please go to tinyurl.com/jngplg3 or click the flyer located on the RSS homepage. The Parent Resource LiveBinder will be updated frequently so be sure to visit often.

Parents and caregivers are an integral part of the success of every child in Rowan County. As partners in your child’s journey, we encourage you to read with your students, ask them about their day, let them see you reading and encourage them to share their favorite book with you.

Crystal Merck is elementary instructional lead teacher for Rowan-Salisbury Schools.