Education | Illinois Public Media

Every year, Illinois Public Media trains more than 75 volunteer readers who go into Head Start and early childhood classrooms to read a book and do a related activity with the children. Some volunteers, like Shony Coleman, are parents. Others are university students or members of community service organizations. But no matter who the volunteers are or where they come from, the kids are always excited to see them. Every time the book mentors come to read, it means the children in that classroom get to take home another book. Each year, the Book Mentor Project distributes more than 3,500 books to more than 500 families in Champaign County. And mentors like Coleman know the visits and the books make a lasting impression. He thinks the project is having a huge impact on kids’ lives, and a big impact on him. “The reason I’m doing this is because I want (my son) to do the same thing when he grows up and has his own kids. I want him reading, too, to his kid’s class. And he’s gonna do it, because I did it.”

Head Start teacher Cecelia Mintz thought kids’ shows were just kids’ shows until she saw how the children in her classroom responded to the PBS KIDS early literacy series SUPER WHY! As one of more than 60 teachers in Illinois Public Media’s Book Mentor Project, Mintz watches episodes of SUPER WHY! with her classroom and integrates concepts and activities from the show into her curriculum. Mintz says the children really relate to the characters in the show, and it motivates them to pay attention to letters and sounds. “They (the kids) can really do what the characters do and it shows that they do learn from it, and it is a useful tool in education.” Research supports Mintz’s observations. A study by the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania found that viewing SUPER WHY! helps children acquire early literacy skills. Children who watched as few as two episodes of SUPER WHY! scored 46% higher on standardized tests than those who did not watch the show. Since the Book Mentor Project began in 2004, Illinois Public Media has provided training, resources and ongoing support for more than 225 Head Start and early childhood teachers in central Illinois.

Kelly Russell, Child Development Services Manager for Champaign County Head Start, appreciates how Illinois Public Media’s Book Mentor Project builds community support for early literacy in Champaign County. Not only do volunteers from community service organizations go into Head Start classrooms once a month to read a story and do an activity with the children, but those same community service organizations provide financial support for the project. With help from local organizations such as Junior League of Champaign Urbana, C-U Sunrise Rotary, Rantoul Rotary, and Champaign-Urbana Noon Kiwanis, the project has become self-sustaining. And with budget cuts at every turn these days, Russell knows how important it is for a project like this one to have community support. As she says, “I think the Book Mentor Project is a wonderful program. It allows our children and families and community and teachers to work together to insure that children are ready for kindergarten.”

Kathy Martin was excited last year to begin offering something new during her visits with child care providers in central Illinois. She drives the Quality Counts resource van for the U of I Child Care Resource Service, helping providers improve the quality of their day care. This past year, she was able to offer five different activity kits created by Illinois Public Media. Statewide, 180 kits were offered to day care providers in partnership with the Illinois Network of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies. Funding was provided by the Illinois Department of Human Services. Child care providers check out the kits from the from Quality Counts resource vans operated by child care resource and referral agencies. The kits feature ideas from A Place of Our Own, a WILL-TV program for anyone, including family members and neighbors, who cares for children.

Home day care provider Mary Perez of Hoopeston and other providers around the state made use of activity kits created by Illinois Public Media to help their kids get up and moving, resolve conflict, tell stories and celebrate diversity. “I had my best summer ever because of those kits,” Mary said. “The school-agers didn’t complain that they were bored.” The kits gave her ideas she wouldn’t have thought of herself, and activities were adaptable to all the different ages in her day care, she said. The Illinois Network of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies was a partner in the project and the Illinois Department of Human Services provided the funding.