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Mission
California Dictionary Project, founded in April 2002, grew out of the need to improve literacy rates in California’s public schools. We believe that by reaching children early (third grade), providing them with tools (dictionaries), personalizing the delivery (volunteers from the local community) and teaching them how to use those tools (presentations and teacher lesson plans), we can grow “readers.” By giving students access to language and ideas, we give them access to alternatives that can affect the course of their lives.
Key Facts
Description
California Dictionary Project is a non-profit, charitable organization that donates & distributes dictionaries annually to third grade students in California’s public schools.
Programs
Dictionary Donation and DistributionA dictionary is perhaps the first and most powerful reference tool that a child should own. Its usefulness 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. During a typical classroom visit, volunteers from local communities present the dictionaries to each third grade class during a 20 - 30 minute pep talk designed to encourage class participation in looking up words. We ask each student to develop the habit of marking each word looked up with a dot to track usage. We then play a couple of quick word games to get the students excited about using the dictionaries, using the maxim look it up. The dictionaries are gifts, so the students can take the dictionaries with them into the fourth grade and use them throughout their school career. California Dictionary Project is composed entirely of unpaid staff. Whenever possible, we partner with local literacy groups, local corporations, and other service organizations to distribute the dictionaries.