Braille Readers Are Leaders Expands Program

Braille Readers Are Leaders Expands Program

The Braille Monitor

October,

2003

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Braille Readers Are

Leaders Expands Program

by

Barbara Cheadle

The Braille Readers Are

Leaders contest is a national contest for Braille students, kindergarten through

twelfth grades. It is sponsored by the National Organization of Parents of Blind

Children (NOPBC) and the National Association to Promote the Use of Braille

(NAPUB); both organizations are affiliated divisions of the National Federation

of the Blind. From November 1 to February 1, parents, teachers, or librarians

help students keep track of the number of Braille pages they read of extracurricular

material. At the end of the three months, thirty-five students from six different

categories earn recognition and cash prizes as the top winners. Students who

read five hundred or more Braille pages for the contest are also honored with

special Braille ribbons, and all contestants receive recognition for participation.

Since

1984 the Braille Readers Are Leaders contest has inspired thousands of blind

students to read more Braille. In 1994 a special award was instituted for participating

schools for the blind, and in 1998 an outstanding teacher or librarian was first

selected for public recognition of his or her support for the Braille Readers

Are Leaders contest.

The

dramatic increase in recent years in the number of students who participate

and the letters and comments we receive from teachers and parents demonstrate

that the program is a success. However, we are not content to rest on our laurels.

As NOPBC and NAPUB laid plans to celebrate twenty years of promoting Braille

through the Braille Readers Are Leaders contest, we also considered the next

twenty years. What more could we do to promote Braille literacy?

We

listened to teachers and parents and concluded that Braille Readers Are Leaders

needed to be more than a contest; somehow it needed to include the kids who

weren't reading yet--the prereaders or emergent readers. It is common knowledge

that the foundation for literacy skills and the motivation to learn to read

are laid down years before a child begins formal reading instruction.

Thanks

to a grant from UPS, the Braille Readers Are Leaders contest has expanded. It

is now the Braille Readers Are Leaders Contest and Literacy Program for Braille

Readers and Pre-readers. Beginning November 1, 2003, Braille Readers Are Leaders

will include the first annual BRL Reading Pals--a noncompetitive Braille literacy

program for blind infants, toddlers, preschoolers, and older students with reading

delays.

The

goal of this program is to encourage parents to read aloud to their child a

minimum of fifteen minutes a day during the three-month period beginning November

1, 2003, and concluding February 1, 2004. Upon registering for BRL Reading Pals,

parents will receive a three-month reading journal, a print/Braille children's

book, a Reading Pal (a small beanie-baby-style stuffed animal), instructions

about how to complete the program, a resource list for children's print/Braille

books, and tips on how to promote a positive attitude about Braille and reading.

At the conclusion of the program the parent and child will receive a certificate

of completion and a special prize they can share together. Teachers or other

adults, such as grandparents, may also register a child for this program. However,

the adult must have regular and frequent opportunities to read aloud with the

child.

To request contest entry

forms or the BRL Reading Pals registration forms, please complete and send the

following information to Braille Readers Are Leaders, 1800 Johnson Street, Baltimore,

Maryland 21230; e-mail <[email protected]>; (410) 659-9314 ext. 361.

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