According to the Florida Department of Education, 70% of Sarasota third graders were reading at grade level in 2019.
But 30% were not.
We decided to ask “Why?”
Could it be that some of the preparatory texts in the standardized curriculum don’t speak to Sarasota kids? We’ve seen some of the passages in standardized textbooks—stories of blizzards, for instance. How many Sarasotans, particularly from marginalized communities, have ever seen snow?
So, we decided to create short, locally focused writings in a variety of genres that focus on people, places, and events much closer to home. With family or with classmates, students can even take follow-up field trips to the local museums, nature centers, and historic sites mentioned in our selections.
We imagined developing this project at a leisurely pace—and then the pandemic struck. We’ve now fast-tracked the start of our Sarasota Reading Project so that we can offer a sample of this free online resource for parents, caregivers, teachers, and kids learning remotely from home.
To access our samples, please click on the “K-1,” “2-3,” or “4-5” buttons to go to the selections written for the appropriate reading level of your student. We invite comments that that help us define our project as move forward. together.
Thanks for visiting us—and stay healthy!
Dianne Ochiltree
Ryan G. Van Cleave
Sylvia Whitman
**The noted reading level of each piece uses the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level scale.