By Taylor Ware “I signed up for service-learning because it was an opportunity to do something good. I never thought I would end up a published author,” said junior Missouri State student, Sarah Hinkson. Last spring, Sarah took part in the National Literacy Project in its mission to provide reading and writing resources to children and families. Being a theater major and a Spanish minor, Sarah developed the perfect idea to combine her educational background and desire to support literacy. I signed up for service-learning because it was an opportunity to do something good. I never thought I would end up a published author These factors lead to Príncipe Alejandro; an original children’s book featuring both English and Spanish translations of the story. Príncipe Alejandro is about a little boy that faces adversity in his attempts to socialize with the other kids in his school. Sarah wrote this book to show children that they are not alone in their challenges with social identity. Alejandro is inspired by a real person: the child of Sarah’s high school theater teacher. … [Read more...] about Service-learning to self-publishing: student works to improve child literacy and cultural competence
By Taylor Ware “By 3 years of age, there is a 30-million-word gap between children from the wealthiest and poorest families. A recent study shows that the vocabulary gap is evident in toddlers. By 18 months, children in different socio-economic groups display dramatic differences in their vocabularies (Fernald, Marchman, & Weisleder 2013).” To address this issue, the National Youth Leadership Council devised the National Literacy Project: Bridging the Divide. Tasked with developing this initiative was the Citizenship and Service-Learning (CASL) office here at Missouri State University. The project asks that students create and assemble a variety of reading and writing literacy resources which are to be housed on the CASL website. Last fall, an entire classroom committed to this project. Professor Telory Arendell’s Theatre for Social Change course spent their semester hard at work writing, practicing, designing, and performing. Honor’s student Matt Walter took the lead as producer of their project. Theatre for Social Change is considered the capstone experience for … [Read more...] about Theatre students use the stage to help improve literacy