The Massachusetts Literacy Champion Program recognizes and supports unique and promising literacy educators, their practices and programs. Each year, multiple Literacy Champions are chosen from a competitive nomination pool by a panel of experts in the field of literacy education. The champions represent the entire state and the many fiends of literacy education. Each has shown exceptional commitment and results through their work.

Each year, these Literacy Champions serve as ambassadors for the Massachusetts Literacy Foundation and share their work in literacy with peers across the Commonwealth. They advise and collaborate on annual publications distributed statewide that highlight successful practices and strategies for effective literacy programs. Award recipients are encouraged to remain actively engaged in the Literacy Champions program and outreach initiatives.

The Massachusetts Literacy Champion Program is supported by Verizon Check Into Literacy program foundation.verizon.com and the Massachusetts Literacy Foundation www.massliteracy.org . Each Literacy Champion receives $3,500 in grants to support their literacy program and professional development.

What does it mean to be a Literacy Champion?

Marilyn Antonucci, 2005-2006 Literacy Champion whose work appears in series one of Massachusetts Reads and Succeeds, offers these thoughts......

As I reflect on being named a Literacy Champion, I can truly say that being a Champion has directly affected my own literacy work as an educator, as well as the literacy work of the families, children and other educators that I have worked with during the past year. In March, I presented Linking Literacies : An After School Program for Families at the 2007 Massachusetts Reading Conference in Sturbridge, MA. Linking Literacies is the program that I developed with the $2,500 stipend from the Mass. Literacy Foundation for the Springfield Public School District.

My audience at the conference consisted of educators from schools throughout Massachusetts as well as a school district located in Ottawa, Canada. It was during the question and answer session that I realized just how fortunate I was to be a Literacy Champion. This audience of educators was amazed to hear how much the Linking Literacies program had accomplished with only $2, 500 to support it! A few of these accomplishments were: an eight week after-school literacy program for families who meet   two sessions per week; a team of parent read-aloud volunteers willing to read at various school read aloud activities; an Educational Fair highlighting the literacy work of the families, and the continuation of storytelling and the love of reading as part of   the daily instructional program for third and fourth graders.

It also became apparent to the audience that the $2, 500 went so far because this literacy initiative was a collaboration of the school, the family and the Community. Matching the Mass Literacy Foundation's funding with funding from a variety of agencies that are committed to literacy in the North End of Springfield, where the school is located made this literacy work, so worth while and rewarding.   The total possibilities of this literacy initiative are still undefined. Hopefully, educators left my presentation with ideas of trying a literacy incentive similar to my model in their own school district. I urged them to apply to be a Literacy Champion and find out first hand how they too can initiate a great literacy incentive with only $2, 500.

I also realize that as a Literacy Champion I have a responsibility to myself as an educator and to all the families and their children to be an advocate for literacy education.   In my opinion there is never an adequate number of Literacy Programs available to the people who request them. We presently face in the State of Massachusetts the possibility of a $4.4 million dollar cut to the funding of Adult Basic Education Programs. I wrote a letter to my local newspaper to alert other readers about the importance of convincing our Massachusetts State Senators to support the Adult Education programs, and prevent so many people from being left out of the literacy loop. The citizens of Massachusetts deserve the respect from the Senate and the funding to continue the literacy programs.   As a Literacy Champion I have the opportunity to network with the other Literacy Champions about this most important issue. Together we can combine our thoughts about how to deal with this problem and go forward together to help affect change for people because of our commitment to literacy work.

Biography: Dr. Marilyn Antonucci received her Ed. D. from the University of Mass/Amherst in Teacher's Education and Curriculum Studies in February 2005. She is presently an  ELA Instructional Leader Specialist in the Springfield Public Schools, modeling language arts lessons for teachers pre K - 8th grade and providing direct instruction to children in "best" literacy techniques.  Her dissertation, Bringing Reading Strategies Home from a Family Literacy Program: Two Case Studies of Parents and Children Reading Together   adds to the research in developing and implementing family literacy programs. She has been a family literacy educator for several years: two years as an ABE instructor; five years as an Even Start Family Literacy Specialist in Springfield, MA and two years as a Coordinator of a family literacy program at Forbes Library, Northampton, MA.  She has taught reading and language arts courses at area colleges as an adjunct professor.  She received a Pioneer Valley Distinguished Teacher Award in 2005 for her outstanding family literacy work in the Springfield School system. She designed and initiated  The Linking Literacies After School Program to encourage literacy, communications, and forge a sense of community between parents, and their teachers.