Henry County Schools has worked hard over the past month to bring area students a new online initiative called Henry Reads.
A partnership between the Henry County Board of Education and the community, Henry Reads works to promote a continued success in literacy for Henry County students as well as to support families and teachers during school closures.
Children’s stories are read aloud by members of the community and recorded, and then uploaded to the Henry Reads website for families to access.
“It was the idea of the Board of Education to find ways where they could support our teachers and support our families and just try to bring a bit of lightheartedness to the learning process,” said Henry County Schools superintendent, Mary Elizabeth Davis.
Monday, May 11 marked the beginning of the Henry Reads initiative, with members of the Board of Education reading the book “Maybe Something Beautiful: How Art Transformed a Neighborhood” by F. Isabel Campoy and Theresa Howell.
Henry County Board of Education readers included Josh Hinton, District 2 Chair; Dr. Pam Nutt, from District 1; Annette Edwards, from District 5; Holly Cobb, District 3 Vice Chair; and Sophe Pope, from District 4.
Superintendent Mary Elizabeth Davis also read “Ordinary Mary’s Extraordinary Deed” by Emily Pearson.
A bilingual story is included on the website for students that speak Spanish.
Dr. Humberto Fallas from Fallas Family Vision, read “The Giving Tree” by Shel Silverstein in both English and Spanish.
“We definitely want to encourage the participation of many home languages and we really see this as a great way to connect lots of communities of learners through text and through literature,” Davis said.
During COVID-19, Davis states that the online books are essential as teaching aids but also give the students new stories to experience while at home.
“The Henry Reads program brings books into the families’ homes that may not be in the homes. So it adds to your home library,” she said.
Davis expresses that the books promote creativity and imagination. She hopes that parents can begin to use the books as valuable teaching tools for their children.
“I think the Henry Reads campaign is just further evidence of unifying what families are doing at home, what teachers typically do in the classroom and now they do in a remote classroom,” said Davis. “It’s not just about the book being read. It’s about how families are now aware they can use books to have conversation with kids and have conversation as a family.”
Davis hopes that this new initiative will evolve into community members being able to eventually come into the classroom to demonstrate to Henry County students the importance of reading.
“Henry Reads has started with digital read-alouds but is definitely going to evolve into something more comprehensive as we are able to return to on-campus learning,” she said. “We see the opportunity to bring our community into our classrooms and into our schools where they can really share, model and encourage the love of reading and the actual skill of being a good reader.”
However, for now, the Henry Reads initiative will remain in the online portal until it is safe to return to in-person education once more.
In the meantime, Davis expresses her hope that the community will step up to participate in the Henry Reads initiative.
“We want families, our employees and we want our community to feel like we are all connected and rallying around the success of our kids and that starts with being successful readers,” said Davis. “I would invite anyone who wants to invest in our future, invest in the health of our community, that this is a small way and a tangible way to plug in to supporting students here in Henry County.”
If you are interested in becoming a Henry County Reads reader, please contact J.D. Hardin, the Executive Director of Communications & Public Relations for Henry County Schools at John.Hardin @henry.k12.ga.us.
To access the Henry Reads stories, visit https://bit.ly/Henry ReadsHCS.
