Enterprise Muskingum Launches New Literacy Program
ZANESVILLE, OH – A new program that helps to encourage literacy at a young age is coming to a local school this fall.
Read with Me, Muskingum is a program offered through Enterprise Muskingum that parents, grandparents, seniors, and caregivers can enroll in.
Marketta Thomas, the Executive Director of Enterprise Muskingum, says the way the program works is once a week these volunteers will come into the schools and read to children in Kindergarten.
“Read with Me, Muskingum is our first program and it will be a high dosage tutoring program taking place at National Road Elementary.” Thomas said. “We’re pulling volunteers from across the community to come, sit with our students, one day a week to provide high dosage tutoring. So this is site words, books, reading supports, and helping to create a literacy rich environment for our students. This program is in partnership with the Zanesville City School District where they have selected a curriculum to make it super easy for our volunteers to come in and spend time, really engaging our students and helping them to the 3rd grade ready to read to learn.”
Thomas says you don’t have to have an education background to volunteer with this program, the District has created a script that volunteers can follow along with.
She added that there will also be two sessions, with the first happening in August through December and the second picking up in January and ending in May.
Alyssa Amspaugh, the Principal of National Road Elementary School, says it’s taken about a year to get everything together with this program but they are very excited to be able to bring it to their students this coming school year.
“Really, bringing in Enterprise Muskingum into the building, getting them to know the students, the students getting to know them.” Amspaugh said. “Miss Marketta has come in a lot, we also had the Literacy Council come in, it’s been a really exciting partnership. Our students deserve everything and more, so we want them to be these confident learners and readers, and Zanesville City Schools is excited to partner with them.”
If you are interested in signing up as a Volunteer reader, you can email Marketta Thomas at mthomas5@zanestate.edu.
