Service Learning Through a Literacy Tutoring Program
The literacy tutoring program described in this chapter provided a service-learning opportunity for preservice teachers. Through service learning, the preservice teachers had an authentic teaching experience in which they applied the knowledge and skills
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Service Learning Through a Literacy Tutoring Program DeAnna M. Laverick and Kelli R. Paquette
Abstract The literacy tutoring program described in this chapter provided a service-learning opportunity for preservice teachers. Through service learning, the preservice teachers had an authentic teaching experience in which they applied the knowledge and skills they gained in the college classroom. The tutoring program was a form of community outreach that provided children with additional support in literacy. In their tutoring role, the preservice teachers served children and families by providing individualized instruction. This chapter begins with a review of the literature on literacy centers and the role that literacy centers play as a resource for service learning in teacher education. It will then describe how a university’s literacy center was revitalized to serve as an optimal environment for a tutoring program; share how the tutoring program was organized; describe the servicelearning component of the courses in which the tutors were enrolled; and give examples of how the tutoring program supported the needs of preservice teachers and the children whom they tutored. The chapter concludes by sharing some of the challenges encountered in the service-learning tutoring program and making recommendations for how others may implement a similar program. Keywords Service learning • Literacy • Literacy centers • Tutoring • Reading clinics
Jillian, with a look of apprehension on her face, stood in the doorway of the university’s literacy center with her mother, Kristen, standing behind her. Jillian clutched her mother’s hand as she was enthusiastically greeted by the literacy center’s director, supervisor, and an undergraduate education major who was to be Jillian’s tutor. Her glances darted quickly around the room as she viewed the computers and interactive whiteboard, colorful child-sized furniture, pocket charts filled with picture and alphabet cards, shelves of books, and a display of big books. Jillian’s tutor, Susan, moved forward to take Jillian by the hand and walk with her
D.M. Laverick, D.Ed. () • K.R. Paquette, Ed.D. Department of Professional Studies in Education, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Davis Hall Room 303, Indiana, PA 15705, USA e-mail: [email protected] © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017 K.L. Heider (ed.), Service Learning as Pedagogy in Early Childhood Education, Educating the Young Child 11, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-42430-9_10
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to look at the big books. She reassured Jillian that her mother was not going to leave her and that they would be spending time together reading and working on homework. Jillian excitedly began to pull big books off of the shelves and, together with Susan, started browsing through them. As soon as she found one that interested her, Jillian began to talk about the illustrations and then read interactively with Susan. When Jillian came upon an unknown word, Susan showed Jillian how to look for a familiar chunk
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