“Breaking Down Barriers for Families” – A Conversation with the Florida Grade-Level Reading Campaign

Jenn Faber, Director of the Florida Grade-Level Reading Campaign (FGLRC), an initiative of the Florida Alliances of Children’s Councils & Trusts (FACCT), is dedicated to giving children their best chance at learning – starting as early as before birth. The FGLRC was among the first recipients of Worldreader’s Let’s Get Children Reading Grant in 2023. After the FGLRC was awarded the grant for its second edition in 2024, we sat down with Jenn and Kristi Biffar, the FGLRC’s Special Projects Consultant, to discuss how the Reading Campaign’s work has evolved since partnering with Worldreader and introducing the BookSmart reading app in their programming.

Thank you for joining us. How important is it to focus on early years to support a child’s learning journey?

Jenn: The Florida Grade-Level Reading Campaign focuses on getting children to read by the end of third grade. So, everything we do from the minute a mom knows she’s pregnant through the child’s toddler years and into their school-age years goes towards getting the child to be a proficient reader. 

Access to books isn’t enough, we want to help families fall in love with reading as a daily activity. Often in the early years, reading is an assignment from a classroom teacher or a daily session that the teacher is facilitating, and the struggling student might not always enjoy that part of the day.

BookSmart allows us to share that joy of reading across after school and early learning programs around Florida.

Jenn Faber, Director of the Florida Grade-Level Reading Campaign

Because BookSmart has thousands of titles that are developmentally appropriate, from the youngest readers to 12-year-olds, there’s a wealth of choices for children. The app is designed to encourage children and their caregivers to preview books and make the selection that best suits them. It allows them to not only practice early reading skills, but to have a wonderful opportunity to select stories that pique their interest and make them want to read a book every single day.

What can get in the way of families supporting reading at home from an early age?

Kristi: There are many barriers we must break down for families when it comes to early reading at home, and when I think of BookSmart and family engagement, two of those barriers come to mind. The first is access – we do have really good libraries in our communities, but sometimes getting to them is difficult. They may be open until about 5 pm, and if parents are working or don’t have the transportation to get there, their families won’t have access to free books. So BookSmart brings the books to them, wherever they may be in their daily activities.

The second is eliminating the intimidation that comes with picking up a book. Think of the size and weight of a thick book – some children may not pick it up because it intimidates them and they’re unfamiliar with that experience. But they’re familiar with a mobile device. No matter how much we prefer kids not to be on screens, they know them, they’re familiar with them, so it’s a less intimidating experience. They simply start swiping through the digital book’s pages and once they get hooked into the story, they want to read more of it. 

The same goes for parents. Sometimes, parents struggle with their own literacy skills and may be intimidated by a larger book.

Being able to share the reading experience with their kids on a device they’re already using allows parents to approach stories more easily and bond with their children.

Kristi Biffar, Special Projects Consultant of the Florida Grade-Level Reading Campaign

How can we support reading for bilingual families?

Jenn: We’re big fans of families using their home language when they’re at home. So many of our children around the state speak Spanish. While at school they speak English in the classroom, and having their home language available on BookSmart to read books with their families is fantastic. In fact, one of the first questions that our Reading Campaign ambassadors working with families asked about the app was, is it available in Spanish?

Kristi: We think encouraging home language and bilingual reading is key. We share book descriptions, flyers, promotional materials, and learning activities in both Spanish and English, and would love to see content in other languages our families speak. I think being able to provide materials and support to our communities in different languages is a really strong message to share.

And it’s not only about the language of the books, but the diversity of the cultures that the books represent. When you expose children to content from around the world, you expose them to stories they may not be familiar with. I remember reading a book on BookSmart about collecting rainwater to use – that’s not something that a lot of our kids here in Florida must worry about. However, introducing concepts like this provides a valuable lesson about the world while also helping them develop their reading skills.

How has your work evolved since being awarded the Let’s Get Children Reading Grant?

Jenn: I think it’s exciting to see how the Grant has and continues to help us expand our reach in Florida. In recent years, we went from serving 10 counties to serving 36 counties, which is more than half of Florida, participating in the Campaign. BookSmart is perfect to promote reading at the community level – we can bring it into community events, businesses, afterschool programs, and more. And this helps get our campaign work noticed, especially in counties without a local campaign.