NWFRW solicits donations for student dictionaries for third-grade students in Klein and Spring Title I schools. Thanks to our members and friends, all third graders in Klein ISD and Spring ISD Title 1 schools received the books in 2021-2022. A case of 24 books costs $90 and is enough for one classroom. Each school needs 5 or 6 cases. Checks are payable to “The Dictionary Project” and are tax deductible.
The goal of this program is to assist all students in becoming good writers, active readers, creative thinkers, and resourceful learners by providing them with their own personal dictionary. Educators see third grade as the dividing line between learning to read and reading to learn.
Donors and chairmen of the project deliver the dictionaries to the students in their classrooms. They provide a brief presentation to introduce the book’s contents, which include multiplication facts, weights, and measures,
the US Constitution, biographies of all U.S. Presidents, information of all the state and world nations, and over 35,000 words most appropriate to third-grade students. It is heartwarming to watch the students’ excitement over the content. In Title 1 schools this often the first book actually owned by the child and may be the only book in the home.
District Third-Graders Receive Personal Dictionaries from the Dictionary Project.
The Dictionary Project founder and executive director Mary French (center) poses with volunteers Sue Kikis (left), Sue Lurcott (right) and third-graders at Northgate Crossing Elementary School.
As a cleaning lady, she bought dictionaries for all of the students at the school within her community.”
According to the mission statement of the program, The Dictionary Project aims to assist all students in becoming good writers, active readers, creative thinkers, and resourceful learners by providing them with their own personal dictionary. The dictionaries are gifted specifically to third-graders for use at school and at home for years to come.
“[Plummer] noticed that the children were crossing from school to go home and didn’t have any books in their hands,” said French. “She asked, ‘Why don’t you have any books?’ That’s what gave her the idea that they should at least have a dictionary at home so they could learn those words.”
The Dictionary Project has been adopted and refined by individuals, businesses, civic organizations and volunteers all over the country, including the Houston area. So far this school year, students across 15 of Spring ISD’s elementary schools have received dictionaries, thanks to Northwest Forest Republican Women and donations from members and friends in the community. Every third-grader in the district will have received a dictionary before the end of the school year.
Principal Kristi Brown says Northgate Crossing has participated in the project for as long as the school itself has been open – over ten years.
“This program allows each one of our kids to have a dictionary with them all day long that they can use – even beyond reading – in the content areas, such as science,” said Brown. “For instance, science has very difficult vocabulary, and a lot of times, kids can’t make a connection with it. But they can look up a word in the dictionary, read what the definition is, and see a sample sentence and make connections to it. It brings meaning to whatever content they are learning.”
French says she wants third-graders at Northgate Crossing to take away the importance of learning and understand that it is a lifelong process.
“Our volunteers visiting Northgate understand the value of learning just like Anne Plummer did,” French said. “No matter what level you’re on, you should understand the importance of learning.”