Every year, WKAR gives away more than 50,000 new books to mid-Michigan families as part of the organization's educational services.
WKAR's Sophia Saliby spoke with Director of Education Robin Pizzo about the station’s reading kit program.
Interview Highlights
On what the reading kits are
The reading kits allow us to stand beside them, partner with them, offer some really amazing reading activities and literacy lessons, as well as amazing, amazing, high-quality new books into the homes of children all throughout our region. And it's a powerful, powerful initiative, and something truly dear to my heart to be able to say, "We want to stand with you and make sure that your home library is just as robust as the library within your community."
On how she wants to see the reading kit program grow
I would love for the full radius of our listeners to be able to access one of these kits from our partner organizations, no matter where they are located. Yes, we have a robust system that is within the Lansing region. But we want to reach far and wide throughout our listening area, so that all families feel supported in this way. So if we could continue to grow, last year, our goal was 10,000 with our 100th year anniversary, and I challenged our team and our partners to go big, you know, to double that number if we can, so that every child feels special and can look forward to engaging with reading materials and books with their family.
On some books she recommends for children for holiday gifts
When I think of some titles that are reading and enjoying right now there's a new book called Weekend and Zay: Saturday School. Oh, that book just was wonderful. It's an early reader. It's fun. The illustrations are amazing. And then I have titles like My Cold Plum Lemon Pie Bluesy Mood by Tameka Fryer Brown, so amazing. Change Sings by Amanda Gorman. We love, love, love all of the I Survived series, and they are now in graphic novel form.
Interview Transcript
Sophia Saliby: Every year, WKAR gives away more than 50,000 new books to mid-Michigan families as part of our educational services.
Robin Pizzo is WKAR’s Director of Education. She joins me now to talk about the station’s reading kit program. Thank you for being here.
Robin Pizzo: Thank you for having me.
Saliby: Can you talk about the state of literacy in mid-Michigan, specifically for children?
Pizzo: For children in mid-Michigan, literacy has really been at a point of crisis. Michigan has for over 14 years not made any gains in literacy performance for fourth graders, and Michigan, unfortunately, has remained one of the lowest-performing states with minimal growth in literacy achievement.
Saliby: And what do efforts to improve that literacy rate for children, what do they look like?
Pizzo: So, our State Department of Education led by our Superintendent Dr. Michael Rice has done some amazing initiatives to try and turn the tide for literacy achievement and early skill development for pre-K up to about fourth grade, which is the really critical moment of early literacy skill development, things such as implementing more funding toward literacy coaches in our schools, really supporting a robust library system throughout mid-Michigan and the state as a whole, supporting reading program engagements for families to learn and work together in fostering the love of literacy and reading.
So, there has truly been an all-hands-on-deck process toward increasing reading skill development and proficiency for children all throughout our state.
Saliby: And how does WKAR's reading kit program fit into that?
Pizzo: So, our program really is about standing beside our families, our community and saying, "We understand how important it is for our children to love reading, to learn to develop the reading skills they need to be successful in life."
We want to stand with you and make sure that your home library is just as robust as the library within your community.
And so, the reading kits allow us to stand beside them, partner with them, offer some really amazing reading activities and literacy lessons, as well as amazing, amazing, high-quality new books into the homes of children all throughout our region. And it's a powerful, powerful initiative, and something truly dear to my heart to be able to say, "We want to stand with you and make sure that your home library is just as robust as the library within your community."
Saliby: Can you talk about what's actually in the reading kits and how they get distributed?
Pizzo: The reading kits include a folder that has several reading lessons and activities. Some are tactile, so that those young hands can manipulate different materials while playing and learning early literacy skills. There's also writing activities because reading and writing development skills go hand-in-hand.
We really wanted to show that reading is everywhere, everywhere when you go to the grocery store, when you go out to the marketplace or farmers market, when you see signs along your routes to and from work.
There are some literacy guidebooks that helps with showing parents ways to continue to engage with literacy all throughout the community when they're out and about with their children. We really wanted to show that reading is everywhere, everywhere when you go to the grocery store, when you go out to the marketplace or farmers market, when you see signs along your routes to and from work, there's reading opportunities everywhere. And so, the kit really represents that in a lot of the different pieces and parts that are in it.
But there are also opportunities for them to talk and discuss books and discuss their feelings with some tools that are connected to our beloved PBS Kids programming such as Daniel Tiger and Clifford.
And then there is a ton of community resources. We've partnered with over 100 community organizations throughout mid-Michigan that could provide parents with information on pre-school enrollment, health department supports as well as library resources during March [National Reading Month]. We also provide two age-appropriate books within each kit, and the kits are divided by three different age levels.
Now, I want to be clear about the kits. The kits are not available individually to families, What we've done is worked hard to partner with over 100 community organizations to say, "We want to offer you these reading kits, provide us with your dream number of how many you'd like to put out in your community, your network of families." And we collect those numbers and then they come pick up the kits once they've been created and distributed them widely throughout the community.
Saliby: How would you like to see this program grow?
I would love for the full radius of our listeners to be able to access one of these kits from our partner organizations, no matter where they are located.
Pizzo: Oh, I like these kits to be everywhere. I would love for the full radius of our listeners to be able to access one of these kits from our partner organizations, no matter where they are located. Yes, we have a robust system that is within the Lansing region. But we want to reach far and wide throughout our listening area, so that all families feel supported in this way.
So if we could continue to grow, last year, our goal was 10,000 with our 100th year anniversary, and I challenged our team and our partners to go big, you know, to double that number if we can, so that every child feels special and can look forward to engaging with reading materials and books with their family.
Saliby: To end the conversation, there may be some families listening, thinking about what books might be great to give as holiday gifts to the children in their lives. Do you have any recommendations?
Pizzo: Oh my goodness! You've opened up Pandora's box with that question. I was a longtime English teacher, literacy coach and eighth grade middle school teacher, and so, I love, love, love books, and I engage with books on a very large scale every single day.
And so, when I think of some titles that are reading and enjoying right now there's a new book called Weekend and Zay: Saturday School. Oh, that book just was wonderful. It's an early reader. It's fun. The illustrations are amazing.
And then I have titles like My Cold Plum Lemon Pie Bluesy Mood by Tameka Fryer Brown, so amazing. Change Sings by Amanda Gorman. We love, love, love all of the I Survived series, and they are now in graphic novel form. And we love, love, love our beloved characters such as Clifford, Daniel Tiger, they have a robust selection of books.
Saliby: Robin Pizzo is WKAR's Director of Education. Thank you so much for joining me.
Pizzo: Thank you.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
