From: Phil deHaan (dehp@calvin.edu)
Date: Wed Feb 26 2003 - 09:33:41 EST
February 26, 2003 == FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Alexander Literacy Experience, begun by Dr. Arden Post, professor of
education at Calvin College, has garnered a literacy award for Gloria
Tolbert's fourth-grade class at Alexander Elementary School.
"Bats, Buddies and Ben Carson," an innovative program with an improbable name,
couples reading skills and strategies with internet literacy and is the Great
Lakes Regional winner of the 2003 International Reading Association (IRA)
Presidential Award for Reading and Technology, sponsored by Riverdeep-the
Learning Company.
The award recognizes the Alexander Literacy Experience or ALEx, a three-year
partnership between Calvin education classes and several Alexander fourth- and
fifth-grade classes, and will provide Alexander Elementary with $500 worth of
educational software.
ALEx began with a grant from Worldcom through Campus Compact and uses
technology to support literacy in an urban elementary classroom. Students from
Post's "Reading and Language Arts in the Elementary School" class are paired
with reading buddies at Alexander for weekly one-hour sessions.
Post says the program has changed some over the last three years. "At first I
was driven by technology," she says. "Now we use technology to enhance
literacy, not drive it."
In the program's first year, the reading pairs researched bats on the
internet, using web sites pre-selected for them. The bat unit taught Alexander
students computer and internet skills while promoting reading. The buddies
read a biography of Ben Carson, an African American neurosurgeon, during the
program's second year. This year the buddies are picking their own books.
Alexander students respond to their reading and their internet research with
writing and drawings. The written responses range from descriptive paragraphs
to journal entries to diamonte poems, diamond-shaped poems that teach parts of
speech.
"It gives the children a chance to develop multiple talents," Post says.
The Calvin students perform literacy assessments on their buddies at the
beginning and end of the semester. They also plan lesson sequences and write
both daily reflections on their work and a concluding paper.
Tolbert says the partnership is invaluable.
"The (Calvin) students get to know the Alexander students," she says. "They
exchange phone numbers. They get e-mail addresses. They exchange cards."
Wednesdays, Tolbert says, are a highlight of the week.
"On Wednesdays there are not too many absentees," she says. "The students are
here because they know their Calvin buddies will be here."
Post's class has worked with several of the fourth- and fifth-grade classes
over the past 2 1/2 years. Thus the recent award recognizes the entire project
but benefits Tolbert's class this year, which will receive $500 worth of
educational software.
Calvin education professor Steve Timmermans and Calvin director of pre-college
programs Rhae-Ann Booker together solicited the Worldcom grant and initiated
the partnership between the college and the elementary school. That union also
included Neland Avenue Christian Reformed Church.
While the Worldcom grant will not be renewed because of that company's
financial difficulties, the program will continue because of its value to all
says Timmermans.
"It's helped a church know how to partner with a neighborhood school," he
says. "It helped a neighborhood school meet its goals. And it's helped a
professor take a course and make it technology rich and urban-situated."
~by staff writer Myrna Anderson
NOTE TO MEDIA: Calvin students will be at Alexander today (2/26/03) from
10:30 to 4 pm (the Alexander students leave at 3:40). Contact Arden Post at
616-526-6204 for details on future Wednesdays.
-end-
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