By DENISE DICK

By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
CANFIELD -- T.J. Bellas, a junior from Boardman High School, reads a book to a toddler in the day care program at Mahoning County Career and Technical Center.
The reading Thursday marks Right to Read Week, but Terry Billock, an English teacher, and Kathy Zimmerman, an early childhood education teacher, say the importance of reading is something they try to instill in students all year.
"They need to understand that reading is crucial," Billock said.
Students in Zimmerman's class make picture books for the toddlers, helping the small ones associate words and sounds with objects.
To emphasize the importance, any student seen by an administrator reading outside of class gets a coupon that entitles them to a candy bar. The incentive started this week, but Billock said it will continue through the school year.
Andrea Barnes of Jackson-Milton and Kelly Heubel of Boardman, both seniors in Zimmerman's class, say they've learned the importance of reading to very young children.
"It helps with their language skills," Andrea said.
"And it builds their vocabulary," Kelly said.
Creative learning
Zimmerman's students create glove puppets for extra credit. A plain garden glove is turned into a storyteller, like Jack and the Beanstalk, with each finger decorated like one of the story's characters.
Another example of how the school uses reading in classes with pre-schoolers is the story, "Billy Goat's Gruff." One day they listen to the story on another they act it out.
"It's approaching the same piece of literature in different ways," Zimmerman said.
Students spend time each week in English or other classes in what they call sustained silent reading. Each student chooses a book, which must be age and content appropriate, and reads quietly during that time. The teachers read their books during those sessions, too.
Sometimes Zimmerman and Billock encounter students who tell them they've never read a whole book before, to say nothing of reading for pleasure.
But then the children find a book that resonates with them. Two that come to mind, the two teachers said, are "A Child Called It," by Dave Pelzer about a boy who endured severe child abuse and "Tuesdays with Morrie," by Mitch Albom, about a man with cancer talking about things that are important to him.
"We're trying to instill in them the idea that reading isn't something that you just do in school," Billock said. "It's something you do throughout your whole life."