BookPALS Brings SAG Actors Into Classrooms

Performing Artists Literacy Program Gets Kids Reading

Apr 22, 2009

Started by Mission Impossible actress Barbara Bain, Screen Actors Guild Foundation BookPALS promotes student literacy with performing artists and classroom games.

In 1993, Barbara Bain (Cinnamon Carter from TV’s Mission Impossible), took on a mission as challenging as any of the ones from her TV show. The challenge: how to improve student literacy by getting kids to read and gain a love of books.

The solution: Bain and her friends founded BookPALS (Performing Artists for Literacy in Schools), a volunteer student literacy program, through the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Foundation, an educational, humanitarian and philanthropic non-profit organization that aids the professional endeavors of SAG actors and their communities.

Through BookPALS, performing artists volunteer an hour each week at Title One schools reading storytelling books to kids – using the character voices and dramatic delivery actors can bring to oral reading. By listening to the actors, kids are exposed to the magic of books and discover the joy of reading for themselves.

Developing a Performing Artists Literacy Program

Soon, SAG Foundation hired a National Program Director who turned BookPALS into a nationwide literacy program. Today, BookPALS has eleven branches in Arizona, Florida, California, New York, Nevada, Minnesota, Georgia, Massachusetts, and Washington D.C. Its 2500 volunteers read to over 100,000 children in elementary and middle school classrooms; hospitals; cultural institutions; and over the phone

BookPAL readers are typically SAG actors with experience in film, television, or theater acting. In states without a high SAG actor population, BookPALS can also include non-SAG affiliated actors, theater students, and educators. All Book Pals receive training in reading aloud through workshops and other acting resources.

Some branches also offer a Junior BookPALS program that trains elementary, junior high, and high school students to become readers for younger children.

“One thing that makes us unique is that we’re not there to teach children to read – we’re there to teach kids to love to read,” says Nurit Siegel, a BookPALS reader and Director of Strategic Planning and Marketing for the SAG Foundation. “I think inspiring that love of reading is the greatest thing the actors in BookPALS pass on.”

Yet the contributions BookPALS provide a classroom often go beyond just reading storytelling books. Arizona performing artist Sue Cohen incorporates theater games for children in her visits by having students act out the stories in mini plays, complete with props and puppets. According to Cohen, getting the kids acting helps children overcome shyness.

“One little girl has sort of come out of her shell and wants to be an actress because I used her in my first acting out of a story and she got a lot of recognition for that,” says Cohen, a retired kindergarten teacher. “So now she wants to act out all the stories.”

Other Book Pals go to greater extremes. After reading the book Black Beauty to his students, “Uncle Joel,” a Los Angeles BookPAL, arranged for two LA mounted police to come to the school on black horses, allowing many students to see the animals up close for the first time.

“Our readers… develop a personal connection to the children,” states Marcia Smith, Executive Director of the SAG Foundation, “It’s not just someone coming in to read a book. It’s someone who cares about the kids, who’ll go that extra nine yards to give the kids that kind of experience.”

Thanks to the reputation BookPALS has attained, children’s hospitals, bookstores, theatres, festivals, and shelters often ask for Book Pals to provide readings at special events. For many, this has let performing artists help in clothing drives, holiday plays, and book donating drives.

“If we can partner with other organizations that need readers at story times – our volunteers are very generous with their time,” states Ellen Dean, facilitator of the Arizona branch. “When we’re called on, our volunteers can fulfill the needs of the community.”

Interested in becoming a BookPAL or having a Book Pal perform in your classroom? Visit the BookPALS website and see if one of its branches is in your area.

The copyright of the article BookPALS Brings SAG Actors Into Classrooms in Children’s Books is owned by Michael Jung. Permission to republish BookPALS Brings SAG Actors Into Classrooms in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.