| V Is For...
Volunteering!
You read. You write. You care about literacy. Take your
enthusiasm to the next level by becoming an Open Books Volunteer! We would be
thrilled to get to know you in one of our programs, and help you share your
love of reading with students in Chicago. Check out our volunteer opportunities
and sign up to join us!
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3 Reminders Of Why We're Here
School has begun, and we've finally returned to some of our favorite
spots: schools and classrooms. Here's are three reasons why literacy programs like
Open Books Buddies are so important:
44%
of
American 4th grade students cannot read fluently.
Early
elementary
students who don't have basic literacy skills are
3-4 times more
likely
to drop out in later years.
15
minutes
of independent reading per day can expose a student to
1 million
new words each year.
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Welcome,
Literacy Interns!
We couldn't be more thrilled to welcome this season's batch
of interns to the Open Books fold! Though they hail from all over the place
(Milwaukee to Wyoming), Aarti, Ross, Mary, Katie, Tracey and Laurel have one
thing in common: passion for the cause and limitless ambition to impact
students across the city. Check out how they got into the Open Books spirit by
writing their own five senses poem, proving that our field trip students don't
get to have all the fun!
Fall Interns are the
color watermelon.
They taste like sour patch kids.
They sound like click-clacking keyboards and dinging doorbells.
They smell like the pages of a newly opened book.
They look like the first page of and epic mystery novel.
Fall literacy interns feel like they are living the dream!
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Get Your Dancing Shoes Ready...
...and join us (as well as magicians, artists, stilt-walkers, dancers, fortune-tellers, and more) at The Revelry, Open Books' first-ever gala fundraising event!
November 5
7 - 10:30 pm
Salvage One
Tickets are on sale now!
Learn more and order yours!
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Did you know that September is National Literacy Month? It's
a perfect time to take a look at the inspiring ways we're bringing our love of
reading, writing, and all things relating to books
into the lives of our friends and students. |
VWrite: Meeting and Greeting
Late last month we launched our virtual mentoring program,
VWrite, with a Meet and Greet. Fifty-two Open Books VWrite volunteer mentors piled into carpools and onto trains
and traveled to Gage Park High School to get acquainted with the students they
would be working with for the next 8 weeks.
Waiting in the school library were 52 high school juniors
nervously anticipating the arrival of their new mentors, who had been
selected, screened, trained, and motivated to help the students succeed. For two months, these mentors will help
their students with professional writing skills: resumes, cover letters, and
college entrance essays. Mentors
will also organize outings to visit universities, businesses, and perhaps
cultural institutions like museums, exposing the students to vibrant
opportunities they may not have known were within their reach. The mentors will
learn about the challenges in their students' lives and hopefully the two will
find commonalities between their (sometimes) disparate ages and experiences.
We're now a month into the program. The students and mentors are
comfortable with each other, having spent hours getting to know each other over
phone and email. The students have
submitted their first resume, and are getting geared up for writing cover
letters. There have been obstacles, sure, but with each interaction, the
students get more excited about the opportunities that lie ahead for them, and
a little bit closer to tackling life after high school.
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Spotlight On The Problem:
Why We Read Multicultural Books
At Open Books, we strive to provide students with resources
that echo their lives and experiences. Students are more engaged with books in which they can "see" themselves,
and are more likely to identify with characters who look, speak, and live like
they do. We believe that if a
student is curious and engaged in literature, he/she will continue to seek
texts on his/her own and become a lifelong reader.
However, it is seldom that the material we read with
students accurately represents their lives and neighborhoods, or offers the
same diversity that exists in Chicago public classrooms, where nearly 88% of
students are ethnic minorities. This is not a failing of schools or of Open
Books, but a problem in the book-world at large; while slowly changing, there
is a dearth of books that feature multicultural protagonists in urban settings.
So this month, we encourage you to embrace the colorful
range of voices in Chicago by branching out and embracing books that DO feature
varieties of characters and settings. Here are some that we're reading:
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Mark Your Calendar...
...and join us at the Open Books store (213 W. Institute) for these fabulous events in October! Events are FREE and open to the public.
 Meet prize-winning author Elizabeth Rosner, who will be reading from her novel Blue Nude. The story examines the relationship between an "emotionally and creatively starved artist and his muse," both of whom are tormented by the Holocaust and its aftermath. The program will include a Q & A session and an opportunity to have your book signed by the author.
Wednesday, October 6
7 pm
 Get to know The Beachwood Reporter's poet-in-residence J.J. Tindall as he celebrates the release of his book of Chicago poetry Ballots from the Dead. Other contributors to The Beachwood Reporter, the "irreverent but journalistically serious" online Chicago newspaper, will join Tindall on stage.
Thursday, October 14
6:30 pm
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