“Our community will be changed for the better” – A Conversation with Ann Hagaman
Reading has the power to change the lives of children and the communities they live in. Few people know this better than Ann Hagaman, an Adult Education Teacher in the small town of Crete, Nebraska. Ann has been working to get families reading by empowering parents and caregivers through her Adult Education classes that teach literacy, numeracy, and English language skills. They are a part of the larger Crete Family Literacy Program, run by Crete Public Schools and aimed at supporting caregivers and children in their educational journeys.
Having been an educator for the past four decades, Ann has first-hand experience with the importance of reading. Her work has been pushed even further with Worldreader’s Let’s Get Children Reading Grant, which supports US community-based organizations, schools, and learning institutions in fostering a love for reading among children aged 3 to 12 and their families.
Now, while working with a diverse group of families across the town, Ann has connected with pillars of the community from schools to churches and food drives to share the power of our BookSmart app. As more children and families start to read regularly, Crete is changing for the better.
Thank you for speaking with us today. Can you tell us about your inspiration to support children and families through reading?
As an elementary teacher, I’ve always known how important reading is to children and their success in school and life. We know as adults that reading helps us continue to be lifelong learners as well. That’s always been a motivation for me.
My interest in this grant and the BookSmart app came as an adult educator – I work with families that have school-aged children in the Crete Family Literacy Program. I teach them about the culture of public schools and how to get involved with their kids’ education. I also help them understand that families are their children’s first and primary teachers. There’s a big learning opportunity for parents in the Family Literacy program, which includes discovering what kinds of questions to ask: how do I read to my kids? What kind of resources do I use?
Families are their children’s first and primary teachers.
Ann Hagaman, Adult Education Teacher
Many of the families we work with don’t have book wealth or consistent access to quality reading materials. To address this, we started a bookshelf project to give these families stories to put in their homes. BookSmart fits in perfectly because it provides us a way to put those books directly in the hands of our parents through their mobile devices. Even if they don’t have book wealth, they instantly have great vetted titles and activities that are easy to use with their kids.
What do you hope will happen when we help schools and communities support family reading?
One of the things we do in Family Literacy is help families set goals. They set goals for themselves, and one of the things that comes up over and over again is “I want to help my kids in school.” But that’s such a broad thing, and many parents don’t know what that means. They want to help their kids, but they just don’t know how.
Every success that a parent has in reading with their kids, whether it’s on a device or with a book in their hands, builds their confidence. It helps them think, “You know what? I can do this!”
Ann Hagaman, Adult Education Teacher
The conversations they’re having with their kids help them find success and reach the goal of being there for their children. They find out that it’s not difficult to do. It’s something that builds their family relationships and they just build on every success with a book in their hand.
How have you seen Adult Education make a difference in the community and in helping children learn to read both in the classroom and at home?
I was a little nervous about how the app would work with our parents and how we could successfully get them to use it on devices. Many of our families have difficulty accessing and understanding technology. But when we presented BookSmart during a Family Literacy class time, they were so excited about it.
There was one woman who felt so confident that the whole time while I was sharing titles on Booksmart, she was finding her own. When she came back next class, she said “Well, I know you gave me these titles and these activities, but I decided that I was going to do my own thing with my sons.” She felt empowered, she felt confident as a mom, and that’s exactly what you want. Something as easy as this allows them to have books at their fingertips without having to spend a lot of money. Even the activities don’t cost money. They’re conversations that you have with your family. The families felt confident, so I think it was and continues to be successful.
The Family Literacy program and Adult Education was a catalyst. We did a language experience activity with ACE Hardware in our small town, and it centered around birds in February. We wanted to have our families use English and go into ACE Hardware and buy the materials, talking to the sales staff to make bird feeders. We practiced with a script and looked ahead at what the bird feeders would look like. Well, through that process, we heard the adults say, “Wow, I was really nervous about going into the store, but the staff was so nice, and there was even somebody there who spoke my language.”
That helped me see that there are places in the community where our adults, and especially those who speak multiple languages, are not going because they don’t feel confident. Adult Education and the Family Literacy program helped them build language so that they feel more confident being a part of the community.
How has your work evolved since being awarded the Let’s Get Children Reading Grant?
I had never been to our afterschool program, the Cardinal Community Learning Centers (CCLC), but I went when I found out we had the grant for summer reading. I knew that I couldn’t just talk with my Family Literacy families because I wanted to reach more people than that. I shared our reading program and incentives with parents who were picking up their kids from CCLC, and these families came to our center and began to get involved.
I went to other organizations, including ones I wasn’t familiar with. There are migrant programs in our district, and I’ve been able to work more with those programs and their families because of BookSmart. I also collaborated with the local library and they now count BookSmart stories toward children’s reading goals.
With the BookSmart app, I started thinking, “Okay, where can I find families and how can I get them on the app?” I keep finding more places like the food bank in our town and the church where we have our Family Literacy location. The Let’s Get Children Reading Grant pushes me to think outside the box and find new places to reach families.
What’s in store for your program in 2024?
I want our families to participate fully in our community because if they do, our community will be changed for the better. Engaging in the community can include coming to the Family Literacy classes and building their confidence. I also introduce people to BookSmart during these classes. The app is a tool for me to use with my learners to help them reach the goal of helping their families.
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