Your voice, involvement, and partnership matters!

Together, we can make a difference!

Email: ahendrix@polk.k12.ga.us
Website: https://www.polk.k12.ga.us/page/family-engagement
Location: 612 South College Street, Cedartown, GA, USA
Phone: 770-748-3821
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PolkCoSchools

May a spirit of renewal and celebration fill you as we finish up the school year. We hope that you will enjoy some family time, whether vacationing over Spring Break, participating in a local egg hunt, or watching games at the ballpark. We encourage you to talk with your child(ren) about their accomplishments and growth throughout the past year. Let's make an effort to finish the school year strong!

Important Dates for April and May

Spring Break: April 8-12

Progress Reports: April 24

GA Milestones (3rd-8th): April 30 - May 8

GA Milestones (9th-12th): May 7-16

AP Testing: May 10-16

Senior Finals: May 14-16

Underclassmen Finals: May 22-24

Last Day of School: May 24

Rockmart High School Graduation: May 24

Cedartown High School Graduation: May 25

Families stand at the center of our society. And every family has a personal stake in promoting excellence in education.

~ Ronald Reagan (State of the Union Address)

Literacy provides us all with a magical power! Once you have this power, you can tackle the world with more confidence and assurance. The ability to seek out and understand information gives us all the freedom to make choices, to advocate for ourselves, and to learn more about our community and world. Please consider this newsletter your one-stop shop for literacy resources!

Resources below include:

Early Literacy

Middle and High School

What Is a Lexile?

Digital Resources

Writing

As always, please let us know if you have additional questions or concerns.

Amanda Hendrix, Family Engagement Coordinators

(770)748-3821 Ext. 3026

ahendrix@polk.k12.ga.us

Welcome, parents!

One of the most important gifts we can give our children is to help them learn to read and write so that they can succeed in school and beyond. Confident, active readers are able to use their reading skills to follow their passions and curiosity about the world. We all read for a purpose: to be entertained, to take a journey of the imagination, to connect with others, to figure out how to do something, and to learn about history, science, the arts, and everything else.

Learning to read is complex. Children don’t learn one reading-related skill and then move on to the next in a step-by-step process. Instead, they are learning to do many things at the same time: decoding, reading with comfortable fluency, absorbing new vocabulary, understanding what the text says, and discovering that reading is pleasurable and builds knowledge about the world.

We hope this guide will give you a better understanding of what it takes to learn to read (and write) and how you can help your children grow as readers, writers, and learners!

Starting in kindergarten, if a student reads 20 minutes a day at home, they will hear 1.8 million words per year. They will have read for 851 hours by 6th grade and on standardized tests, they will likely score better than 90% of their peers. This is compelling data on the benefits of encouraging your child to read.

Helps in language development

From the time your child is born, reading out loud is a positive influence. As your child grows, daily reading will help the brain make connections between the written and spoken word, widening vocabulary in the process.

Adding to that benefit, vocabulary knowledge equates to masterful spelling. In fact, reading, spelling and vocabulary are critically important to a child's lifelong achievement.

Promotes brain development

Educators have long said reading makes people smarter, and there’s research backing them up. A recent study conducted by the American Academy of Pediatrics found reading to children of any age wakens a number of regions in the left part of the brain. The areas in the brain that become active involve understanding the meaning of words and concepts tied to memory.

Aids in understanding of a world outside our own

Reading is more than just translating written words into verbal form; it is about understanding those words were once ideas in the minds of great thinkers. It is about realizing those ideas can be connected to personal experiences.

Through daily reading, children are exposed to a world outside their own reality. It expands their know-how, opens their minds and creates the potential for a continuation of ideas and an endless number of possibilities.

So, in honor of National Reading Month, this is a great time to encourage your child to dive into a great new book and get the whole family reading each day too.

Strengthens family relationships

There is nothing quite like reading together as a family. Whether you're flipping through picture books with your little ones or sitting in the same room with older kids while, each immersed in a piece of literature, these are times you remember.

For a moment, you are all able to escape worries and experience art in written form. It is something that can be recreated in different forms with every new book and family read-a-thon.

Provides endless possibilities

Whether it’s a picture book, a novel or even help resources, there are many options. With technology, particularly tablets like Kindle, your child has access to thousands of books anytime, anywhere. Reading on a Kindle ensures children are never without a new title and, based on their interests, they can easily find recommended books.

Additionally, children can take advantage of a Kindle to improve reading skills through the development of word fluency and comprehension. Word Wise, for example, places short and simple definitions and synonyms directly above difficult words in text, so kids can better understand the material and keep reading with few interruptions. Vocabulary Builder automatically takes words users look up and creates flashcards with definitions and word usage examples.

So, in honor of National Reading Month, this is a great time to encourage your child to dive into a great new book and get the whole family reading each day too.

Now more than ever, parents and caretakers are looking for flexible ways to encourage and sustain their child’s learning while at home. One of the simplest ways to incorporate learning into your child’s day is through reading.

The first step is to be your child’s reading partner and role model. Simply picking up a book or newspaper and reading in front of your child will motivate them to do the same.

There are Endless At-Home Reading Opportunities for Children

Some ideas include:

• Reading anything you can get your hands on — books, e-books, graphic novels, magazines, comics, newspapers.
• Reading to another family member.
• Listening to an audiobook or story. Your local library may have a free digital collection of audiobooks you can download to your phone, tablet, or computer.
• Keeping a journal.
• Writing a poem, a story, or a drawing a comic or graphic novel.
• Making and labeling a map of home.
• Writing a play and acting it out.
• Keeping a list of the things you read, and writing a short summary of each.
• Creating a spelling list of words based on things found around the home.
• Creating a virtual book club with friends where you have the opportunity to get on a video call and discuss a common book.
• Watching a movie at home and then summarizing or reviewing it, or if it is based on a book — comparing the two.

Click here to access a database of book lists in 18 categories based on grade and Lexile level. Each entry on our grade-based book lists includes a link to the Worldcat.org library database so you can reserve a copy at your local library.

A Lexile measure describes a student's reading ability and allows you to compare that ability with the difficulty of books and other texts. Lexile measures are always a number followed by a capital L, for example 650L. The Lexile scale spans reading ability and text difficulty from the youngest of readers all the way up to those reading the most complex texts. To illustrate the scale, the Lexile® map shows Lexile measures ranging between approximately 200L and 1700L. However, some reading materials and readers do have Lexile measures below 0L and may have a code of BR* for beginning reader. The BR code replaces a negative sign and represents a value that is below zero on the Lexile scale.

SHRLS was founded in 1981. Prior to 1981, Floyd, Polk, and Bartow County libraries were part of the Tri-County Library System. After Bartow County left the system, Floyd and Polk Counties reorganized to become the Sara Hightower Regional Library System. In November 2020, the Chattooga County Library System merged with the Sara Hightower Regional Library System.

SHRLS is part of PINES, a public library automation and lending network serving 300 libraries and affiliated service outlets in 52 library systems covering 146 counties in Georgia.

Our Mission:
The Sara Hightower Regional Library System’s mission is to provide information, stimulate thinking, and support and enhance Floyd, Polk, and Chattooga Counties educational, informational, recreational, and cultural pursuits. The primary objectives of the Sara Hightower Regional Library System are to collect, organize, produce and make easily available materials of contemporary significance and of long-term value.

Our Vision:
The Sara Hightower Regional Library’s vision is to be the community’s universal access point for information including printed materials, local databases, and the internet.

PINES library cards are available to all ages! If you live, go to school, or own property in Georgia, you can apply to receive a FREE PINES card. Minors must have their parent or guardian present to register. PINES cards will work at hundreds of libraries throughout Georgia, allowing users to check out items from one library and return them to any other.

Applying for a PINES Card

Applying for a library card online is quick and easy. Once you’ve filled out the form, you’ll have instant access to all of our online resources. The password you create as part of the process will be your PIN for digital resources.

To transition to a physical card, you’ll need to bring photo ID to the library.