See those kids above and their babysitter? They are enjoying the literacy project that I helped create. In the course of taking a Literacy Leadership graduate class, I needed to initiate a literacy reform project and jumped in with the local librarian to create a Story Walk along the fence where many children and adults walk to and from school. It is also the path used in the summer to get to the city park and swimming pool.
What is a story walk you ask? It is a combination of dismantled books, poems reprinted line by line, comics, words, letters, and pictures chosen to challenge and intrigue everyone from emerging to conventional readers. Every few weeks the selection is replaced with new materials.
Did you know that mental maturity and drill have less to do with literacy learning than children having an abundance of print experiences before starting school and that "easy access to books, magazines, and other reading materials is an essential factor to schools where children become readers and writers" (Allington & Cunningham, 2007, p. 63).
Also, low-income children tend to fall as much as two
months behind in their reading achievement during the summer months because
they have less access to computers and reading materials so relying solely on school materials nine months per year is inadequate literary access (Viadero, 2010). Besides that, “children whose knowledge of a topic is
limited have difficulty comprehending much of what they read and difficulty
communicating in writing about that topic" (Allington & Cunningham, 2007, p. 52). So this project is an effort to expand background knowledge and draw more families into public libraries.
Hopefully, as people walk along they will read, think, and discuss the print, practicing their reading skills and expanding their repertoire of print experiences. They may also become acquainted with the materials available at the public library and be more motivated to make use of it year round.
The project is a bit time consuming since the materials have to be prepared, laminated, and secured to the fence, which is about a 12 hour process, but it is creative and fun. And if it motivates struggling readers, then it is definitely worth the effort and time. Of course, gathering the project data through interviews, surveys, and research, then compiling and interpreting it before creating and implementing a reform plan, summarizing the results, and evaluating the process was also a bit time consuming. Twelve pages worth of time, in fact, but also worth the effort.
So that's where part of my time has gone - along with a couple book studies and weekly response papers. Oh, yeah...and helping Mom on the side...er, in the middle.
