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