DILLON — Stewart Heights Elementary School in Dillon School District 2 was one of Cocky’s Reading Express stops Tuesday to promote the importance of literacy.
“It was a delightful surprise,” Stewart Heights Elementary School Principal Jayne Lee said. “It was nice for the students to volunteer to do it. If children don’t learn to read well by the third grade, they have a harder time and tend to struggle.”
University of South Carolina students, with the help of the university’s mascot, Cocky, read “Itching and Twitching — A Nigerian Folktale” by Robert McKissack and Patricia McKissack, and “Please, Puppy, Please” by Spike and Tonya Lewis Lee, to about 200 kindergarten and first-grade students at Stewart Heights. All children were given books to take home.
The reading express also visited South, East and Gordon elementary schools in Dillon 2, and Britton’s Neck Elementary School in Marion School District 7.
Cocky’s Reading Express will have traveled to elementary schools in Marion, Dillon, Orangeburg and Jasper counties by the end of the week.
More than 9,000 students would have received books from Cocky’s Reading Express since its inception in 2005, said Tommy Preston, coordinator of government and community relations at USC and one of the founding members of the program.
“We felt like one of the best ways to promote literacy and help address this major concern was to get college students involved in the process,” he said. “We realize we have an obligation to make our state a better place.”
Cocky’s Reading Express, a statewide literacy initiative targeting children, adults and teachers, is a collaboration of the USC’s Student Government Association and the university’s School of Library and Information Science.
“Literacy is so essential,” USC’s College of Mass Communications and Information Studies Dean Charles Bierbauer. “We want every child (at this age) to be excited about reading.”
Ellen Shuler, executive director for the S.C. Center for Children’s Books and Literacy, said the students choose the areas in the state to visit prior to the fall semester of each year. The students, along with Cocky, spent the last week of their Christmas break to volunteer with the program.
“A lot of college students are looking for opportunities to do community service, but they just don’t know where to go,” said Ashley Wood, secretary for advancement for USC’s Student Government. “Once you do it (you’re hooked). You want to keep doing it, because you can see how it benefits the elementary schools you visit.”
On the Web
For more on Cocky’s Reading Express, visit The South Carolina Center for Children’s Books and Literacy Web site at www.libsci.sc.edu/ccbl/cockyreadingexpress
Dillon School District 2, www.dillon2.k12.sc.us
University of South Carolina, www.sc.edu
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USC's 'Cocky' brings Reading Express to Pee Dee schools
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Published: January 08, 2008
Published: January 08, 2008
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Ashley Wood,
Christmas,
College Of Mass Communications,
Coordinator,
Coordinator Of Government And Community Relations,
Dean Charles Bierbauer,
Dillon,
Dillon School District,
Education,
Ellen Shuler,
Executive Director,
Jasper,
Jayne Lee,
Marion,
Marion School District,
Neck Elementary School,
One Of The Founding Members Of The Program,
Orangeburg,
Patricia Mckissack,
Robert Mckissack,
S.C. Center For Children,
Secretary For Advancement,
South Carolina,
South Carolina Center For Children,
Spike Lee,
Stewart Heights,
Stewart Heights Elementary School,
Student Government,
Student Government Association,
The South Carolina Center,
Tommy Preston,
Tonya Lewis Lee,
University Of South Carolina
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