6 | BACK TO SCHOOL • 2022
READY, SET, READ!
Prepping Kids For Literacy Written By Abby Weingarten
Holistically Literacy may have been a little lagging during the pandemic, as kids switched from turning pages to watching screens. But young students are getting back in touch with their bookworm sides for the 2022-2023 schoolyear, and local library experts are leading the charge. Ellie Newell, the youth services department head at Bozeman Public Library, said building a “literacy toolkit” is a key component to
ensuring student success when it comes to reading this fall—in and out of the classroom. “We know that face-to-face time between small children and adults is essential for building kids’ early literacy toolkit,” Newell said. “For some families, the pandemic meant more time together building young brains. For other families, the pandemic brought incredible childcare and financial challenges and a lack of access to educational resources.” So, how did those disparate shifts affect youth
literacy in the long run? “We won’t know the full impact of this catastrophe’s impact on children’s literacy for years,” Newell said, “but that it will likely widen the achievement gap between privileged and disadvantaged children.” Luckily, the public school system offers a plethora of free resources for all children, and the public library system complements those offerings.
