The Reading Discovery Distance Learning Program and The Texas Fund awards a $25,000 annual grant for the administration of this innovative program of The George Bush Presidential Library at Texas A&M University, designed to encourage civic literacy and an appreciation for the joy of reading in 3rd to 8th grade school children. Reading Discovery Distance Learning Program and Video-conference featuring First Lady Barbara Bush will be held on Thursday, February 2, 2012, with the theme of American presidential elections and democracy. The program's purpose is to show different helpful ways to share the joy of reading, and to increase reading enjoyment among all ages. Also, it highlights effective confidence-building approaches to be used to become a better reader. It begins with Mrs. Bush reading to students from the selected book. Thoughtful questions are then asked by 20 students across the state of Texas to Mrs. Bush during the video conference. Next the author or presenter representing the book speaks on a related topic. Then pairs of students on-stage are "reading partners" or "reading buddies" to demonstrate the fun of reading together. In order to make this distance learning possible, the production collaboration consists of: Barker Production’s broadcast team, Trans-Texas Videoconference Network (TTVN) of Texas A&M University's Education Broadcast Services; and Distance Learning Services of Region VI Education Service Center that bridges all participants through the Texas Education Telecommunications Network (TETN). TETN connects all of the twenty education service centers that cover the state of Texas. The program is broadcast live from the George Bush Presidential Conference Center with an audience of six hundred local students. The 2011 program was video-streamed live internationally to the United Kingdom and across the State of Texas with 32,000 participants who received the book First Ladies, Women Who Called the White House Home by Beatrice Gormley. Mrs. Gormley spoke about how one becomes a writer to help encourage writing skills. The book funding is provided by a collaboration of: The Barbara Bush Texas Fund for Family Literacy, The Junior League of Bryan-College Station, College Station Rotary Club, the George Bush Presidential Library Foundation, and the Education Department of the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum. We appreciate working with Scholastic Inc. to publish and to distribute the large quantities of books. Disaster Recovery Grant Projects In the aftermath of Hurricane Ike and historic flooding of the Rio Grande River in 2008, TCALL assisted The Barbara Bush Texas Fund in developing and implementing a Disaster Recovery Grant Project that enabled eight literacy programs to rebuild and expand services to their communities. That was followed in 2009 by a project to support dissemination of a workforce literacy curriculum for English Language Learners, an initiative designed to help an economically vulnerable population recover from the effects of natural disasters and dislocation. |
