{"id":9984,"date":"2022-06-26T20:28:32","date_gmt":"2022-06-26T20:28:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/2022\/07\/01\/in-literacy-corner-the-curriculum-is-the-children\/"},"modified":"2022-09-07T15:49:03","modified_gmt":"2022-09-07T19:49:03","slug":"in-literacy-corner-the-curriculum-is-the-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/in-literacy-corner-the-curriculum-is-the-children\/","title":{"rendered":"In Literacy Corner, \u2018the curriculum is the children\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some call it EDRD-966: Advanced Practicum in Literacy Coaching. Others know it as Literacy Corner<\/a>. Whatever the name, the month of June has been an adventure in reading, writing and teaching for eight Furman graduate students and 16 Greenville-area children.<\/p>\n

The degree candidates in the Master of Arts in Education (M.A.Ed) \u2013 Literacy <\/a>program are putting what they\u2019ve learned into action in their final practicum. For Literacy Corner, each degree candidate has been assigned two children from a pool of applications submitted by parents or guardians and the children\u2019s teachers. Most mornings in June, the tutors meet in Duke Library for two one-on-one sessions, one with each child.\u00a0Children are selected based on financial and academic need.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn reviewing the applications, we look at reading abilities, writing abilities, speaking and listening, as well,\u201d said Katie Kelly<\/a>, an associate professor of education and coordinator of the literacy education program. \u201cWe want to help those children who may be experiencing some difficulties in the general education setting.\u201d<\/p>\n

The one-hour sessions include reading, writing, speaking, listening and viewing activities, using \u201cevery single material we can come up with,\u201d Kelly said.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of asking children to take out a piece of paper and pencil and write letters, why not\u00a0have them make letters with Play-Doh? Why not let them write with dry-erase markers?\u201d she said. \u201cThe more hands-on learning we can do, the more stimulating it is. We make it as fun as possible, as engaging as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tutor Kristy Buchanan M\u201922 agreed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ve been doing anything that actively engages the students,\u201d she said. \u201cBecause, you know, it is summer, and they\u2019re antsy. So we do anything we can do that\u2019s hands-on.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hands-on engagement includes exploring the surroundings. One group of children enjoyed the Furman tradition of draping the library\u2019s bust of Charlie Peace in colorful attire. They are using the different pieces of the wardrobe to collectively write a story. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be called \u2018The Magical Adventures of Charlie the Statue,\u2019\u201d said Buchanan.<\/p>\n

The tutors interact with their students\u2019 families every day of the program, said Kelly.<\/p>\n

\u201cParents and caregivers are the children\u2019s first teachers, and we want to learn from them,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re all in this together. So, what can we all do together to support each other as we support the children?\u201d<\/p>\n

The families helped the tutors tailor the program for each individual child, \u201cmaking sure we learn who they are as human beings,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cWe get to know them as readers and writers, what they like or don\u2019t like. And so, we start to gather books based on their interests. The curriculum is the children.\u201d<\/p>\n

The M.A.Ed candidates are all professional teachers. Buchanan, a second- and third-grade teacher at Pelham Road Elementary School in Greenville, and Nicole Carmenates M\u201922, a fifth-grade teacher at Gateway Elementary School in Travelers Rest, both said the degree will help them achieve the Read to Succeed literacy education requirement from the South Carolina Department of Education<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cLiteracy Corner is the time to put the whole master\u2019s program into practice,\u201d said Carmenates. \u201cWe\u2019re getting to exercise all of those skills and apply it to our students with the support of Dr. Kelly and the support of each other as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The last day of the program, June 30, is a special event for the teachers, students and families to celebrate their achievements, and for the tutors to offer presentations and information to families about how they can continue the work at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about us working together as partners to say, \u2018Here\u2019s what we learned, here\u2019s what works, here\u2019s what didn\u2019t work, and here\u2019s some suggestions of things you might be able to do at home,\u2019\u201d Kelly said.<\/p>\n

EDRD-966 is the final practicum of the M.A.Ed \u2013 Literacy program, paving the way for the candidates to get their master\u2019s degrees during the Aug. 13 Commencement ceremony<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do this at the end of the program intentionally so that the candidates can apply everything that they\u2019ve learned and put it into action\u201d in their classrooms, Kelly said. \u201cIt\u2019s a way to give back to the community and share everything that we\u2019ve been learning to really help these children thrive.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some call it EDRD-966: Advanced Practicum in Literacy Coaching. Others know it as Literacy Corner. Whatever the name, the month of June has been an adventure in reading, writing and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":9985,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,28,43,74,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-department-page","category-education","category-graduate-studies","category-graduate-studies-in-education","category-top-four-news-4th-story"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}