S.A.G. BookPALS
Starting Tuesday, March 17th, Fletcher Maynard has had the
privilege of hosting members of the
Screen Actor’s Guild BookPALS program in some of our classrooms. BookPALS is
a free program that connects actors that want to give back to
their communities, to local schools. The program’s mission
is to use the unique performance abilities of its members
to get kids excited about reading. The BookPALS (actors)
connect with classrooms in neighborhood schools and
“perform” regular read-alouds for the students.
This semester we have had BookPals in six of our
classrooms: Ms. O’Sullivan, Ms. Kempton, Ms. Ring, and
Ms. Hogan-Jackson in the lower grades, and Ms. Sullivan
and Ms. Martin in the upper grades. The BookPals have
been fabulous and our students have enjoyed the expressive
and animated ways in which they read the stories. Ms.
Sullivan remarked that her students enjoyed how Ms. Chan,
their BookPal, “performs the books she shares by using
different voices and LOTS of expression. Their excitement
is palpable on Tuesdays when she walks into out classroom
door!” Ms. Sullivan invites everyone to ask students from room 307 about their favorite book that Ms. Chan has
read to them.
Ms. Ferrari, another of the BookPals, is also excited about the
opportunity to read to the students. “Their teachers have clearly
laid a great foundation. All the students seem to love being read
to, and I’m honored to be able to witness their joy for books”.
She looks forward to each week’s session. Beyond the excitement
of “giving back” by sharing the joy of reading with our students,
one of our volunteers has cherished the experience of reading to
our students because “it’s new territory” for someone “who was
not read to as a child”. The BookPALS experience can provide the
readers with the opportunity to stretch themselves personally and
professionally. As volunteers, they sometimes end up getting as
much, if not more, than the students from the experience!
Thank you, BookPALS!