CHANNELVIEW, Texas – Channelview ISD has created a unique and fun way to make literacy a priority for their students through what they’re calling a Literacy Bus, and it travels to different schools and places in the community.
It’s aimed at addressing the literacy challenges students face in Channelview ISD by enhancing literacy skills and building a love for reading.
“We have books for all ages of kids, and that way that anybody can get on and be able to find something that they would like to read and take home and relax and have fun with it,” said Librarian Candi Boehme.
The district transformed a big yellow school bus into a library, to bring books directly to the students.
“One of our major goals of our district is to ensure that all of our students are able to read on grade level by third grade,” said Superintendent Dr. Tory Hill. “Every book on this bus is accessible to families, and the students for free and are available in multiple languages and all our high interest and on multiple reading levels so that all of our students in our school district have access.”
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LyondellBasell donated $65,000 to build and fill the bus with a wide range of books for infants to high schoolers.
“These kids, they are the future, right? They’re the future leaders,” said Chris Block with LyondellBasell. “And so giving them the resources they need in this case to ensure that they can read it at grade level, really prepares them for the future and really helps to bring up that next workforce
The partnership is preparing students for the future by fostering a love for reading.
“The literacy bus gives these kids ownership of being able to read, picking out what they want, and picking out something that nobody can take back from them,” said Boehme.
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The literacy bus will be at the Channelview Fire Station on February 6. They have a few other stops on their upcoming schedule. Click here for the full list.