Spring Branch ISD Featured News

Developmentally, third grade is the year when most students start reading to learn. Until that year Spring Branch ISD students focus on learning to read. Literacy, understanding and writing about what is read, is the key to excelling in all subjects in school and in life.

This is why every SBISD third-grade student receives the gift of a dictionary to use at school and home through the Dictionary Project, a program organized by the district’s Community Relations Department.

More than a decade ago, Housman Elementary School volunteer Ormonde Smith spotted a Wall Street Journal article about the Dictionary Project, an effort to promote language arts skills among the young by giving them a tool for reading, spelling and oral pronunciation.

What began as a gift of a single dictionary from a mentor to his student continues to be a district-wide initiative that lives on thanks to the generosity of community members and organizations who step up to sponsor the purchase of dictionaries for all third graders in SBISD.

In early September, more than 2,600 third graders in 26 elementary schools were presented with personal dictionaries. Excited groups of third-grade students assembled in their school libraries to participate in fun activities to explore and get to know how to use their new learning tools, including contests to see who could first find then read the definitions of ‘big’ words, such as lexicon and cartographer.

“The timing of this is perfect,” said a third grade teacher at Buffalo Creek Elementary. “We are getting ready to start our dictionary lessons next week! So now the students will have their own dictionaries to use.”

Many Dictionary Project sponsors attended and assisted with the interactive presentations and received enthusiastic thanks from the third graders and their teachers.

Sponsors of the program this year include, Larry and Patricia McDowell, Doug and Pam Goodson, Germaine Champion, Katherine Dawson, Chris Gonzalez, Theresa Kosmoski, Mary Sherwood, Mark and Karen Saurin, Emerson, Kids Hope Mentors at Our Lady of Walsingham Catholic Church, the Spring Branch Area Retired School Employees, the Spring Branch Lions Club, the West Houston Chinese Church, United Way of Greater Houston, and the Village Republican Women. Additionally, a grant from the Houston CPA Society was used to support half of the district’s Title I campuses.

“I remember when I received a dictionary in elementary school,” said Hannah Urie of the United Way of Greater Houston, sponsor of the Dictionary Project at Buffalo Creek Elementary. “We hope you will use the dictionary you got today for the rest of your life, to help you be better readers,” she told the students.

The students also received bookplates, printed with the date and sponsors’ names, to affix to the inside front of their dictionaries. Space was also provided on the bookplates for the students to write in their names so mix-ups did not occur.

“This program would not be possible without the continued generosity of our community members who believe in our students, our schools and this wonderful program,” project coordinator Abby Walker said. “Putting a new dictionary in the hands of every SBISD third grader at the start the school year sends a powerful message to our students that the community supports their educational pursuits.”

Participating in the Dictionary Project is just one of the ways community members support literacy and participate in SBISD’s Good Neighbor program, which is a way the district recognizes community support. To learn more about the Dictionary Project, literacy initiatives in need of additional resources or the Good Neighbor program, please contact Abby Walker at 713.251.2289.