Putnam Schools Reading Survey Helps Plan Curriculum

Putnam County Schools are reaching out to parents to gauge their thoughts on their children’s reading habits and ability.

Preschool-4th Grade Curriculum and Instruction Supervisor Jill Ramsey said this annual survey is even more important this year. Ramsey said with the pandemic and reading retention guidelines coming for third graders, the system needs to close reading gaps.

“They get all of their foundational instruction to learn to read in K-2,” Ramsey said. “Any instruction in foundations after grade two, is usually catch up.”

This survey is for families that have students in grades K-5.

Ramsey said the system will try and correlate if how kids are reading in school matches up with what parents say they are noticing. She said the system will use this data when planning its 2021 Summer Learning Camp.

“We are offering a Summer Bridge Camp this summer for four weeks,” Ramsey said. “It’s a pretty intense two hours of reading, two hours of math a day.”

Ramsey said the school will have its data for performance in the classroom. However, parents will be asked questions about how their child reads at home.

“Have you noticed how their vocabulary has improved this year? Do you think they’re a better reader based on the instruction they’ve gotten this year?” Ramsey said. “Do they enjoy reading more? Do they spend more time reading? It’s those things that parents might notice that aren’t very evident in school.”

Ramsey said this survey should be emailed to all parents from their child’s school. She said it is also available on social media, but asks parents to only respond once.