Dictionary Project: The Rotary Club of Chester

This school year, 2010-2011, marks the sixth year that the Rotary Club has distributed dictionaries to third grade students and teachers in Chester. For the first three years of the project, The Rotary Club only gave out dictionaries to Columbus Elementary. But now with the help of new fundraisers and grants, they were able to expand the project and provide dictionaries to third grade students and teachers in all of Chester’s public schools beginning in the 2008-09 school year. According to Rotary Club President Louise Vitiello Burroughs, “Our club purchases the dictionaries with funds we raise through fundraisers and Rotary matching grants.”

President Burroughs reports that the purpose of the project is to give a dictionary to each third grade student in Chester’s public schools. The goal of the project is to improve literacy among Chester’s children. This project addresses Chester’s need for improved literacy among school children. In spring 2010, 51.3% of the city’s third graders scored below proficient on the reading standards of the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA)...Basically, children learn to read in grades K-3 and read to learn from grade 3 and beyond. Therefore the dictionary is an apt gift for each child. Most school children have very few, if any, books at home. Having their own dictionaries contributes greatly to students’ ability to improve their vocabularies and reading comprehension, thus opening the doors to educational and career possibilities for their futures.

This school year the Club purchased 696 English dictionaries and 24 Spanish-English dictionaries. Club members are working in teams to distribute the dictionaries to third graders at the following local schools: Chester Community Charter School, Chester Upland School of the Arts (CUSA), Columbus Elementary, Main Street Elementary, Stetser Elementary, Toby Farms Elementary, The Village at Chester Upland, and Widener Charter School. In the upcoming weeks, the Club will finish distributing the dictionaries to the remaining schools.