Improving Literacy
in Cobb County
The Cobb Collaborative is engaging all stakeholders in a community-wide reading initiative that unites families, educators and community partners to improve literacy in children. As one of many solutions to improving outcomes for children and families, proficient literacy and language skills have been proven to directly influence the opportunities and successes of their lives.
Students who have not mastered reading by 3rd grade are 4 times more likely to drop out of high school, leading to diminished employment opportunities, poorer physical and behavioral health and lower levels of civic engagement.
Cobb Collaborative is the local point of contact for the Get Georgia Reading Campaign, a state-wide effort to have all children reading proficiently. Using the research of the 4-pillar framework, we bring programs, activities and services to our community and engage all child-facing adults to help promote literacy and language development.
Get Georgia Reading’s Four Campaign Pillars
- Language Nutrition: All children experience abundant, positive, language-rich social interactions with caregivers, educators, and peers.
- Access: All children and their families have access to, and support for, healthy development, emotional well-being, and educational achievement.
- Positive Learning Climate: All children feel safe and nurtured, from the early years through the early grades, so they can learn and grow—both emotionally and academically.
- Teacher Preparation and Effectiveness: All caregivers and educators are equipped with evidence-informed skills to effectively engage all children through developmentally responsive practice.
As the community partner for LJFA in Marietta, the Collaborative supports:
- Literacy Ambassadors
- Kindergarten Readiness
- Pop Up Book Giveaways
Literacy Ambassador
Literacy Ambassadors in each elementary school help parents and other community residents understand more about the Science of Reading and how they can support the work.
What they do:
- Connect with parents & families
- Interact with other community leaders
- Organize school & neighborhood events
Kindergarten Readiness
From Playground Paloozas at Switzer Library, to the preschool nature trail at Henry Park, we bring The Basics to life in Marietta by sharing how Simple interactions between children, their parents and other caregivers provide abundant opportunities to give every child a more equal start in life.
Pop Up Book Giveaways
During the summer and other school breaks, we partner with four apartment communities in Marietta to increase access to books by hosting book giveaways. We assist children in selecting books to take home and keep. Print awareness (which is a tenet of the Science of Reading) is the understanding that print carries meaning, that books contain letters and words.
Print awareness also includes an understanding of what books are used for and how a book “works” — how to turn pages, how to find the top and bottom of a page, and how to identify the title and the front and back covers.
Little Free Library
One of the most successful ways to improve the reading achievement of children is to increase access to books, especially at home. The Cobb Collaborative works to accomplish this through the installation and upkeep of Little Free Libraries in our community. These book-sharing boxes remove barriers to book access by being available 7 days a week, 24 hours a day with free accessibility.
LFLs operate under the “Take One, Leave One” theory which encourages readers to not only take a book, but to leave one for others when there is an ability to do so.
This is a quintessential collaborative effort, with additional partners including Cobb County School District, United Way of Greater Atlanta Northwest Region, Scout troops, businesses, civic associations and Greystone Power.
Contact Cobb Collaborative Executive Director, Irene Barton, to sponsor installation of a Little Free Library in your community.
Get Children Reading with BookSmart
Did you know the human brain doubles in size in the first year? It keeps growing to about 80% of adult size by age 3 and 90% – nearly full grown – by age 5. That’s why the earliest years are critical to developing strong readers and engaged students.
The Basics Cobb County is our Birth-5 programming that aims to provide fun, simple, and powerful strategies to help every child reach their full potential. The Basics Vision is a Cobb where all infants, toddlers, and preschoolers are on track to achieve their full potential–having benefited from early experiences that foster healthy brain development, learning, joy, and resilience.
We offer Playground Paloozas for children ages birth through five years old along with their parents/caregivers. These events are rooted in five evidence-based practices for promoting early childhood development into routine family engagement efforts:
- Maximize Love, Manage Stress - Staying emotionally present for your child increases their happiness, strengthens their emotional health, and builds self-control skills.
- Talk, Sing, and Point - Boost your child’s language skills and knowledge of the world.
- Count, Group, and Compare - Help your child make sense of numbers and categories all around them.
- Explore Through Movement and Play - Encourage curiosity, discovery, and a healthy body.
- Read and Discuss Stories - Build your child’s knowledge, reasoning, and early literacy skills.
The Mayor's Reading Club is a community initiative aimed at fostering a love for reading among young children. Through this program, children have access to a variety of books, reading events, and resources that support literacy development.
Ferst Readers addresses one of the most basic issues of childhood literacy — ensuring the availability of quality books in the home so that parents can read to their child. Cobb County is a participating Ferst community and welcomes parents to register their child and join in the movement!
