Courtesy of Rachel Daly
By Decker Lavely
A USF St. Petersburg organization plans to team up with elementary schools to help make reading enjoyable while increasing literacy.
Reading Counts is a volunteer-based club that reads with students and strives to develop their vocabulary skills.
“I feel like I’m a kid who could have fallen through the cracks if it wasn’t for my community or my teachers,” said Rachel Daly, president and founder of the club. “I really just want to be that person for someone.”
When Daly, a sophomore education major, started in the College of Education, her first volunteer experience was in a first grade classroom at Campbell Park Elementary in south St. Petersburg. While volunteering, Daly wanted to learn more about the school by reviewing its background and student data.
Campbell Park is a Title I school. According to the Florida Department of Education, Title I is a federal program that provides funds for public schools with a high percentage of economically disadvantaged students.
The school was one of five involved in the 2015 Tampa Bay Times Pulitzer Prize-winning “Failure Factories” investigation in which reporters uncovered years of neglect that were facing these Pinellas County schools.
Campbell Park’s grades have fluctuated in the past few years, from an “F” in 2015-2016 to a “C” in 2016-2017, back to an “F” in 2017-2018 and most recently a “C” for the 2018-2019 school year.
Although Campbell Park is the first school that Reading Counts plans to work with, the organization hopes to connect with other Pinellas County schools that earned grades below an “A”.
“I wanted to make an opportunity for a resource at (USF St. Petersburg) to help out the community,” Daly said.
The process for creating Reading Counts started in fall 2019. This spring, members are scheduled to start visiting Campbell Park. The organization plans to work with third- through fifth-graders who will be state-tested on reading.
Daly said volunteers will listen to elementary students read, make sure they’re comprehending the passages, review vocabulary and teach them how to use a dictionary to look up difficult words.
“I want to make reading fun with them, and in my experience at Campbell Park, the kids really like the volunteers,” Daly said.
All majors are welcome to volunteer, but volunteers will need to receive a Level 1 certification through Pinellas County Schools to work in the classrooms.
Those interested in joining Reading Counts can contact Rachel Daly through the Reading Counts page on PeteSync.
