Rotary Recognizes Readers - 2017
By Lorine Parks
“This is my favorite program of the year,” Mike Pohlen said in his Invocation.
One look around the room at the elementary school children and their principals seated among us, would tell you why. It’s our annual “Rotary Recognizes Readers” celebration.
Dr. John Garcia, Superintendant of the Downey Unified School District, began the program by explaining that Rotary Club of Downey was honoring special readers today. Not the best readers, in the conventional sense, but the most improved readers, boys and girls, who by their own diligence and perseverance, had raised their abilities to read and comprehend by several more reading levels than the average student.
Director of the Instructional Support Program, Veronica Lizardi explained to us that the teacher scores the child on a range of skills, such as accuracy of reading, comprehension, and fluency. This system starts in first grade with levels A and B for the easiest books, and by second grade readers should range from E through N. The grades overlap, so third grade covers from J to Q, and so on, to W by the end of fifth grade.
Students from several different grades in the K-5 elementary schools were each accompanied by their principal, showing just how important their achievement is to the administration. Dr. John himself read to us the special description of how hard each child had worked to deserve their certificates, which were signed by Dr. John and our President Russell, and a gift certificate from Rotary at Target.
The boys and girls had come dressed in their best, and we heard how Carlos from Alameda and Rosa from Lewis come to school each day with a positive attitude and always tried to do their best. Brianna from Old River School had raised her reading ability by 3 levels this year; Students from Gallatin and Rio Hondo had raised theirs by 6. Angel at Price had come to first grade knowing very little English. Connie from Rio San Gabriel always “tries her best,” and Michael’s principal at Unsworth said, “We are so proud of him.”
The words of praise were written by teachers independently, yet we kept hearing the same phrases: “hard working,” “dedicated,” “love for learning,” because these are exactly the traits it takes to improve. As Julie’s principal from Williams said, “working diligently to achieve her goals she has a positive attitude and is eager to start the day.”