The Montauk School’s People as Reading Partners program kicked off on Oct. 22 with a day featuring a roster of readers including school administrators, surfers, authors, farmers, fishermen, retired teachers, and a police officer.
Among them were two Montauk alumni, Mike Poli and Pat Fallon, East End Surf Club owners and instructors, who read to fourth graders, and another alum, Shana Devlin Noskey, who read her recent book, “Goodnight Montauk,” to the first grade. Anthony Sosinski read to sixth graders from “A Speck in the Sea: A Story of Survival and Rescue,” which he co-wrote with John Aldridge.
The program, which runs in the fall and the spring, is an effort to involve parents, teachers, and the community in building a reading partnership between the home and the school. Families are asked to read together for at least 15 minutes a day for three weeks. Students log their reading time and earn prizes each week. If they complete all three weeks, they get a bonus prize, donated by the Friends of the Montauk Library: a $5 coupon for the library’s bookstore. The library also offers prizes to students who visit during PARP season and check out books using their own library cards.
Students come up with ideas for themes and then vote on them. The winning one this time was “Let Reading Light the Way” by Faith Kanavy, a third grader whose design is featured on buttons, magnets, stickers, and bookmarks.