06/05/05
The Road to Reading: A Parent/Teacher Partnership

Caroline Jackson Blakemore was featured in the following article in the Spring, 2005 edition of The Periscope, a publication from PS#1 Pluralistic Elementary School in Santa Monica, California.

On Thursday, November 4th, PS#1 hosted its Third Annual Preschool Symposium. A free public service event for preschool directors, teachers and parents, this annual series provides a valuable forum for information and idea sharing about the preschool years. This year's event featured reading specialist Caroline Blakemore. Caroline is a published author, former adjunct faculty at California State University San Marcos, and Gavin Abraham's grandma. At the Symposium, she talked about language development in young children and shared many interesting observations about how children learn to read and write. Her comments were based upon research and her own experience. Caroline's expertise is highly respected and resulted in her being named one of San Diego's "Top Ten Teachers of the Year" in 1992. During her presentation, Caroline shared specific strategies for teachers and parents to support and enhance children's acquisition of reading and writing skills. The discussion covered a wide range of issues including a dispelling of the idea that reading is just about phonics and decoding. In a lively question and answer session, Caroline answered concerns that both parents and teachers had with regard to their preschool-aged children. Once again, attendees left feeling appreciative for the information and excited about what they had learned! Caroline followed up her talk by continuing to work during the year with our teachers in Youngers and Bridge. This is another example of the many outstanding opportunities for PS#1 Grandparents to play an active role in our school community.


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