As part of an international literacy initiative undertaken by Rotary International, the Rotary Club of Essex provides dictionaries to third graders at Essex Elementary. To make this gift possible, we have partnered with www.dictionaryproject.org, a non-profit organization. Since its implementation in 1995, over 31 million children have received dictionaries from the Dictionary Project worldwide.
A dictionary is perhaps the first and most powerful reference tool a child should own. The usefulness of a dictionary goes beyond the spellings, pronunciations, and definitions it lists. It is a companion for solving problems that arise as a child develops his or her reading, writing, and creative thinking abilities. Through the Dictionary Project we hope that students will benefit from an increased self-reliance and resourcefulness inspired by the maxim “look it up”. Teachers benefit by knowing that their students have consistent access to a tool for homework and in class explorations.
Our Dictionary Project is designed to aid the Essex Elementary third grade teachers in their goal to see all their students leave at the end of the year as good writers, active readers, and creative thinkers. The dictionary is for the children to keep, so they can take it with them into the fourth grade and use it throughout their school career.