THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 10, 1994 TAG: 9411080104
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 19 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DAWSON MILLS, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 53 lines
National Family Literacy Day was Nov. 1, but a one-day affair wasn't good enough for the Norfolk State University Head Start Center.
The center designated the entire week of Oct. 31 through Nov. 4 as National Family Literacy Week and on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday invited special guests to come into the classroom and read to the children enrolled there.
On Tuesday, Dr. Carmelita K. Williams, head of Norfolk State's Reading Department, and Dr. H. Bessant Byrd, Norfolk State's professor of special education, read selected works of their choosing.
Dr. Sarah D. Lang, head of Norfolk State's Special Education Department; Winifred Brown Johnson, bureau chief of education for the Southeastern Tidewater Opportunity Project, Head Start's parent organization in Norfolk; and local TV celebrity Becky Livas dropped in Wednesday to read a collection of Dr. Seuss, Mother Goose and ``The Rabbit's Wedding.''
Norfolk State's reading specialist, Annette T. Marquart, rounded out the program Thursday by reading from her favorite children's books.
The 17 children, ages 3 and 4, sat wide-eyed and spellbound as ``Jack and Jill,'' ``The Three Little Pigs'' and other children's stories and nursery rhymes were spun before their very eyes by skilled storytellers. Little hands raised and little fingers pointed in unison as the young listeners were invited to participate.
``How many of you live in a brick house?'' produced a show of hands.
``How many of you know this story?'' led to some spirited exchanges as different voices vied to tell what they knew.
The purpose of the program, explained Mary Ann Laremont-Lopez, career development specialist for the STOP Organization, is to instill a love of reading in the children that they will take home with them, with the hope that they will ask their parents and other family members to read to them, too.
``I just love reading to children,'' Livas said after her appearance. ``Holland Road Elementary School (in Virginia Beach) invites me in to do so every January. I usually read to fourth-graders - they're my favorite age group - but 3- and 4-year-olds are fine. I'm going back on Dec. 14 to read `The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.` I enjoy doing this and told Winifred Brown Johnson (of the STOP Organization) that I'd go into other centers.''
The STOP Organization oversees 38 Head Start centers, serving 1,407 underpriviliged children. Ten of these centers are in Norfolk, with an enrollment of 391 students. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by DAWSON MILLS
Dr. Sarah D. Lang reads to children at Norfolk State's Head Start
Center.
by CNB