Tracy Carney, Delaware’s First Spouse, celebrated National Literacy Month on Sept. 19 with a visit to the university’s Early Learning Center (ELC) to read her new book, “Books for Blue.”
University mascot YouDee accompanied Carney in reading to teacher Susan Yetman’s pre-K classroom.
Yetman, a teacher of 35 years, described the joy she experiences watching children overcome challenges in their education.
“The most gratifying thing about working with children is seeing them master any kind of a challenge,” Yetman said. “It might be something as simple as zipping up a coat, learning to write their name or recognizing letters and associating letters with sounds.”
One common issue children in Delaware have to face is increasingly low literacy rates.
Because of this, literacy has become an important focus for Delaware educators, as the state was recently ranked 45th out of the 50 states in a national education report. Test scores and chronic absenteeism were cited as the primary issues.
Carney emphasized the need to promote literacy awareness, noting that efforts to reach reading benchmarks, such as achieving third-grade literacy proficiency, must begin well before kindergarten.
“I think what we’re trying to do is promote awareness,” Carney said. “If we want to get to that third-grade benchmark in literacy, we have to start way before kindergarten, and that’s the angle we’ve tried to be one of the partners involved in moving the needle.”
“Books for Blue,” which is available in English, Haitian Creole and Spanish, is aimed at helping households where English is not the first language. Carney emphasized that the multilingual aspect of the book was considered from the start.
“We’ve done recordings of books,” Carney said. “We’ve done videos of books, hoping [children and their parents] can watch together, and they actually help the adult learn English or learn to read along the way, while helping the child too.”
Kaylee Coburn, a junior early childhood education major, is currently student-teaching and stressed the importance of teaching children to read at a young age.
“I think it’s really important to introduce new words and get all those words working in the brain, to get new things introduced and start learning new words and moving on to bigger and better things,” Coburn said.
Carney echoed these sentiments, adding that community spaces, such as libraries and community centers, play a vital role in a child’s development.
The ELC, located just off Wyoming Road, teaches over 200 children, from infants to pre-K, and serves many local families, including children of university employees.
Carney emphasized that the purpose of the “reading tour” is to promote literacy across the state and build crucial reading skills, especially for programs like the ELC.
“We’re calling it a reading tour on purpose, not a book tour, because it’s about more than one book,” Carney said. “It’s about literacy and early literacy experiences.”
“Books for Blue,” written by Tracey Quillen Carney and illustrated by Emily Hirschman, can be found in libraries and learning centers across the first state.
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