April, 29, 2008 — Each third-grade student at Fletcher Walker Elementary received a dictionary as a gift from Elks Lodge 1487 in Susanville. Wayne Riggs, exalted ruler, made the trip to Westwood with the books on Friday, April 18. He told the students they should think of the dictionaries as cordless spell checkers. The reference was a fitting analogy since the class was in the computer room when he arrived at the school.

Each dictionary had a label on the front inside cover for the name of the owner and although students were encouraged to share with other members of their family it is a personal reference book.

Dictionaries are given to third-graders because this is the age children begin learning such research skills, said Riggs. To test the student’s knowledge, he gave them a sentence that used two words that sound the same and have different meanings –council and counsel. These words are homonyms and require the use of a dictionary to make sure the message is conveyed correctly.

The Dictionary Project is a nonprofit organization that uses local sponsors to distribute personal dictionaries to improve literacy. According to this organization, third grade is the year that children go from learning to read to reading to learn.

The Susanville Elks Lodge is distributing dictionaries to third-graders throughout Lassen County. Volunteers in communities across the United States have made this project quite successful. In 2007, The Dictionary Project distributed a total of 2,331,915 dictionaries.