Literacy Award
Dr. Arden Ruth DeVries Post, a 15-year professor of education at Calvin College, has been given the Kent Reading Council's Golden Apple Literacy Award for her extensive work over the years in promoting literacy.
Post is currently working on a book for the International Reading Association, titled "Celebrating Children's Choices: 25 Years of Children's Favorite Books."
That book, expected to be released in September, will feature several local teachers and student teachers as they teach literacy through literature in diverse classrooms.
Such efforts are just part of why Post was honored by the Kent Reading Council. Over the last decade Post has written some 50 articles for such diverse publications such as Christian Home and School, Christian Educators Journal, the Children's Literature Assembly Bulletin, the Michigan Reading Journal, and the International Reading Association's Reading Today.
She also has made extensive contributions to the teaching professions, having done a variety of local, regional and national teacher in-services, conferences, and conventions. Last fall she spoke to the Kent Reading Council on "Literacy for the 21st Century" and the Ottawa Area Intermediate School District on "Teachers' Ten Top Literacy Practices."
Her community service also includes appearances as a speaker at 13 of the past 15 Michigan Reading Association Annual Conferences.
This summer Post will conduct a workshop, July 10-14, titled Teachers as Readers, in which participants will read, discuss, and propose classroom uses for children's and young adult books.