Volunteers use Dr. Seuss to teach Franklin Elementary students the joy of reading

By Michael Crane | SDUN Reporter

“You’re off to Great Places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting, So… get on your way!” So goes the oft-quoted phrase by Dr. Seuss, from his beloved “Oh, the Place You’ll Go!”

It’s just one of the many Seussian mantras that could be heard floating through the halls of Franklin Elementary School last week, we as well as thousands of other schools across the nation.

Just a few days after what would have been Dr. Seuss’s 110th birthday, students, teachers and community members honored his legacy at Franklin Elementary in Kensington as part of the annual Read Across America day. Volunteers from all walks of life gathered at the school on the morning of March 5 to read their favorite Dr. Seuss books aloud and participate in a school-wide parade.

“It’s an opportunity for all of us to gather as a community to read something together and to write about something,” Franklin Elementary Principal Magdalena Tavasci said. “Literacy is huge. We want all our kids to be strong, proficient readers, and this is one way that we do it to make it fun for kids.”

The weeklong event started with the children writing and illustrating their own stories. Each classroom then selected their favorite story from the class to be read before the entire school at an assembly.

“We know that many times when you have good readers they’re not always good writers, but the opposite is true,” Tavasci said. “Research shows that if you’re a good writer you become a good reader.”

For Wednesday’s event, community volunteers read aloud to groups of students before the entire school paraded around the athletic field in their “Cat in the Hat”-styled caps.

In addition to the more than 20 volunteer readers in attendance, Bob Holmes, a 6th grade teacher at Franklin from 1957 to 1990, was present and spoke briefly about his love for Franklin.

“It’s a fantastic place to teach — the best school in town,” said Holmes, who began at Franklin when the original principal was still in charge. The school has changed a great deal since Holmes’ tenure, he said, but countless memories still come flooding back with each visit.

Two of Holmes’ former students, Milt Keller and his daughter Jeanete Pryor, joined him at Read Across America. With the addition of Chris Pryor, Keller’s grandson who will be starting at Franklin next year, it made for three generations of Franklin students in one place.

Speaking before a crowd of community members, Tavasci also praised he recent federal grant provided to Franklin by the Magnet Schools Assistance Program. Franklin was one of four elementary schools in San Diego County to be included in the $10 million grant, which will be rolled out over the course of three years as part of the (STEAM) science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics curriculum, which promotes a cross-disciplinary approach across all subjects.

“The beauty of it is that our children, our students, are going to have this magnificent opportunity to be on the cutting edge of this new 21st century education through the vehicle of STEAM,” Tavasci said. “It’s something as educators we’ve talked about for a long time, but now we have the opportunity to actually have it come to fruition. It’s hands-on, it’s not just learning from a textbook. It’s a lot of project-based learning.”

Tavasci said Franklin will be spending the grant funds on new technology for the school, professional development for teachers and more up-to-date textbooks and other classroom materials. She also anticipates Franklin will be hiring more teachers soon in an effort to bring more local students back to the school.

“We could take probably 300 more students,” Tavasci said. With current Franklin enrollment sitting at just around 255, Tavasci hopes the STEAM funds will attract more students from the nearby area, as well as other communities across San Diego. She sees volunteer efforts, such as those at Read Across America, to be an essential part of developing Franklin into a larger, 21st-century community school.

Interested volunteers are invited to attend a school tour at Franklin on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month. To learn more, call 619-344-3000.