The Dictionary Project
MISSION STATEMENT
The goal of this program is to assist all students in becoming good writers, active readers, creative thinkers, and resourceful learners by providing them with their own personal dictionary. The dictionaries are a gift to each student to use at school and at home for years to come. Educators see third grade as the dividing line between learning to read and reading to learn, so we encourage our sponsors to give dictionaries each year to children in the third grade.
Vision
With the support of local sponsors and volunteers, we want to provide a dictionary to every student in the United States. In this way we hope to help them to improve their communication skills and make the most of their education. Many of our sponsors are also taking the Dictionary Project beyond the United States, to help improve literacy worldwide.
Third Grade Dictionary Project
We have always appreciated that youth are important, and literacy is essential to thrive in your life. Since 2006 we have purchased and delivered over 30,000 reference dictionaries to every third grade student in the Gilbert Public Schools. These student dictionaries include much more than a dictionary, but have sections on geography, mathematics, and science and are an aid to the teacher and students in the classroom. This is our major commitment to youth education and development in the Gilbert community.
NOVEMBER 2020 - YEAR 14
Dictionaries are done for 2020!! Thanks to everyone who assisted, and to our primary sponsor Pam Johnson State Farm Agency. Through all your efforts, we delivered over 2600 dictionaries to third graders in Gilbert, East Mesa. As they move from learning to read, to reading to learn, all those new words can be "looked up" to see what they mean, how they are pronounced and how they are spelled. In addition the dictionaries have sections on math, history, sign language, geography and astronomy. They should be busy all year!
