Raising A Reader (RAR) empowers families to build one of the simplest yet most transformative regular routines to increase literacy: daily book-sharing. We facilitate a school-home partnership that fosters a love of reading, and reinforces the central role of families in helping their young children enter school loving books and excited to learn.
The red RAR book bag rotation forms the cornerstone of our program. Each week, children take home a bright red bag filled with high-quality, developmentally- appropriate, multilingual and multicultural children’s books. This simple routine, sustained weekly by educators and families, is the key to engaging families in the joyful practice of daily book-sharing: a practice that fosters early brain development, strengthens social and emotional development, builds early literacy skills, and prepares children to enter school ready to learn.
Locally, RAR achieves tremendous impact through a strong partnership model leveraging community investments in early education, literacy, and family support. Our partners include both early education providers and family support organizations. Raising A Reader program coordinators provide ongoing support to educators to ensure that the book bag rotation is running smoothly, and that the program is integrated into their literacy and parent engagement strategies. Embedded in ongoing professional development, and offered via community based educator and family advocate training, RAR’s research based workshops are designed to meet the literacy and family engagement goals of participants. Workshop content is aligned with Early Learning Foundations, Common Core and Family Support Principles.
Raising A Reader provides participating parents with training, resources, and tips in interactive book-sharing strategies through on-site and community-based parent trainings including workshops such as “Early Literacy and Interactive Book Sharing,” “Supporting Language Development At Home: Myths and Truths for Parents of English Learners” and “Read, Talk, Sing, Play: Exploring Everyday Activities.” RAR delivers workshops in participating families’ home language, and has developed a methodology that addresses the discomfort felt by many low-income parents about their own literacy, either in English or their native language, thus increasing the likelihood that the books sent home will be shared regularly. RAR’s take-home DVD, distributed in fourteen languages to participating families, gives all family members the know-how and comfort they need to make the shared book experience successful, regardless of their literacy level or home language.
Families are offered a local library connection through on-site or library based events, which introduce them to lifelong literacy resources. As children leave the program, their success is celebrated with a literacy event during which they may receive a blue bag to keep and use at their local public library for years to come.
Raising A Reader’s red book bags have become not only a symbol of early literacy and language development in the communities they reach, but also one of interaction, enjoyment, and parent-child bonding. Children and their parents look forward to the book rotation, and surveyed parents consistently report reading more often and more interactively to their children as a result of the program.
In San Francisco, Raising A Reader has established partnerships and book rotations in 394 classrooms. In Alameda County, RAR collaborates with 225 classrooms in early childhood programs that serve low-income populations in Oakland, Hayward, San Leandro, San Lorenzo, Berkeley, Livermore and Emeryville.
In 2013, Raising A Reader implemented its largest ever participants survey- 1102 parents and 327 educators.
Parents Report:
- 94% increased or maintained the frequency of their weekly reading routines with their children
- 70% read more interactively with their children
- 66% said discussions with their child’s teacher about the red bag encouraged them to read more with their child
“I love it! I don’t have time to go to the library very often,
and with Raising A Reader the children have new books every week.”
- RAR Parent
Educators Report:
- 90% reported that RAR helped to improve Kindergarten Readiness
- 89% said it increased the frequency and duration of time parents spent sharing books with their child
- 97% stated that RAR’s book bag rotation program improved family engagement in their classroom
“Raising A Reader helps bridge the gap between home and school by
having the parents and children read together; children begin to appreciate
reading and talking about books at school.”
- RAR Educator