FSU Students Help South-Side Children Boost Reading Skills

The lazy days of summer might be a time for kicking back and taking it easy, but that won’t be the case this summer for one group of Florida State University students. That’s because they’ll be busy providing academic support to children from Tallahassee’s south side.

This spring, the School of Teacher Education in the Florida State University College of Education launched a program aimed at increasing literacy among some of Tallahassee’s high-needs students. In partnership with the Tallahassee Housing Authority, student volunteers from the college’s Program in English Education provide tutoring and mentorship to elementary-age children at the Orange Avenue Community Center’s afterschool program.

The student volunteers are mostly undergraduate members of Florida State’s Council of Teachers of English, one of only a handful of university chapters of the National Council of Teachers of English in the nation. During the spring semester, they visited the center daily from 2:30 to 4 p.m. -- the designated homework period -- to assist children with their homework and engage them in creative activity and games designed to boost their reading skills in language arts, mathematics and science.

“I’ve had an absolute blast working with the kids at Orange Avenue,” said Thomas DeCeglie, a senior in English education. “Over their spring break, we did a fun activity involving superheroes. We read a book out loud together, acted out superpowers and illustrated our own superheroes. I took their illustrations and compiled them into a book so they could have it as a keepsake. They loved the books, it was all they could talk about the entire hour I was there!”

The program continues this summer, and education majors are already signing up to volunteer in the fall.
“This is a great way for our students to practice what they are learning in the classroom,” said Kathy Froelich, undergraduate reading program coordinator at Florida State. “Many have had experience with middle and high school students but have not yet had the chance to work with young, high-needs children.”

The goal of the program, which was initiated by Claudette Cromartie, executive director of the Tallahassee Housing Authority, is to reach young students before they get lost in the system.

“We strive to enrich lives through all of our community centers,” Cromartie said. “At Orange Avenue, we have children who are in need of mentors and parents who are deeply frustrated because they are unable to help their children with schoolwork. Our partnership with the students from the College of Education is helping to meet both of those needs.”
Gwen Harris-Johnson, former assistant director of graduate admissions at the College of Education and current youth counselor and director at the Orange Avenue Community Center, notes that many children in the afterschool program struggle with language arts and reading. She works closely with the student volunteers to track the children’s progress and identify areas where more support is needed.

“Ms. Gwen (as she is known at the center) takes their academics seriously and asks for printouts of their progress reports and report cards to target problem areas and to gauge growth,” DeCeglie said.

Harris-Johnson and the student volunteers help equip the children with reading and writing strategies that can be applied across curricula.

“When a child is not able to master language and reading, they fall quickly behind in other areas,” Harris-Johnson said. “Social studies, history, science, mathematics and all subjects become a frustrating challenge when a student is unable to read effectively.”
The tutoring program focuses on supporting four specific areas: fluency -- the ability to read with the appropriate tone and tempo; vocabulary; phonemic awareness -- the ability to recognize different sounds within a word; and phonics -- the ability to read words effectively. The ultimate goal in strengthening these areas is to achieve better comprehension, which is the basis of literacy in any subject area.

Cromartie and Harris-Johnson hope to expand the program to other centers so that more children can be served. They are currently working with Scholastic to acquire materials and develop a curriculum and are seeking donations of surplus books and supplies from the community.

For more information about the College of Education, visit www.coe.fsu.ede. To learn more about the Tallahassee Housing Authority’s community programs, visit www.tallha.org.