Language can be a barrier for young students struggling to learn to read, but the language their teachers use to teach is just as important.
One UB program has been making strides to improve not only student's skills, but also how those students are taught to read.
The Center for Literacy and Reading Instruction in Baldy Hall is a supervised clinic in which graduate students studying education help children with a variety of literacy issues. The program itself has been running, in one form or another, for over 30 years.
The program offers graduate students the opportunity to get real-life experience in the teaching world while simultaneously helping local children deal with their reading challenges. By focusing on the individual problems faced by each of the students, the center hopes to provide the tools necessary to overcome their problems.
"Many measurements are taken, based on comprehension, reading speed and vocabulary, to decide what area of concentration truly fits that individual," said Debra A. Dechert, associate director of the center. "All the children who come into the center find reading difficult in unique ways from each other, in different capacities."
To target every level of reading difficulty, the center offers a 16-week program, lasting for a full semester, which allows both the graduate student and child sufficient time to teach and learn. Each graduate student must do an entire reading diagnostic assessment for the preparation of treating each child.
Program director Michael W. Kibby said the very language of literacy education is crucial to helping children read.
"Every effort should be made never to say that a child has a reading problem," said Kibby.
The Center for Literacy focuses its treatment on a concept they call "re-mediation," in which both the child and the clinician mediate the child's reading progress together. At the end of the semester, the center publishes their reports and uses the information to instill fundamental routines for the children and their parents.
"It is indefinitely a passion of ours to serve the children and the community. Without it, we would have no reason for existence, no foundation," said Dechert. "But our even deeper passion resides in the training and success of the clinicians. Their growth through this program is so inspiring. Applying what they have been educated with throughout their schooling is truly giving them the tools to dramatically help so many more children."
The directors said the grounds for the program lie in the needs of the children, and this situation is unique. Teachers are learning right along with their students.
"They are already very competent," said Dechert, "and we treat them like so, while always being there to guide and assist them in their teaching."
And their efforts have not gone unnoticed. A former clinician in the center and current kindergarten teacher, Sara Thomas, says that the experience of working with the reading program was irreplaceable.
"It was absolutely vital to my education. Applying what I had learned in such a resourceful situation was key. I also did school-based work prior to the center, but I feel as if I gained much more through the center," said Thomas. "My student learned to cite more words, read faster, improved his fluency and recognition, and in result grew in confidence."
According to Dechert, confidence is key and it is an element that she tries to instill in each of her students.
"The best reward is seeing diagnostic teachers who look forward to their encounter with the next child they meet who needs a great deal of help in reading," she said.
With their genuine concern for the welfare of both the students and teachers, the program offers graduate students in education an excellent experience.
"The teacher has the opportunity, structure and support to become a fully capable and competent diagnostic teacher of reading," said Kibby. "The ability to adapt instruction successfully in the process of instruction is the benchmark toward which we strive to bring every reading teacher."
