Alice Ensley, Dalton Public Schools
Dr. Roberta Gardner (Kennesaw State University) and Dr. Meghan Welch (GaDOE Program Specialist) spoke with Alice Ensley, District Literacy Coordinator for
Dalton Public Schools (DPS). Alice outlines some of the DPS experience during the last few months of the 2019-2020 school year. She talks about connecting with the students virtually (including Internet access), connecting with students that are multi-lingual, how DPS is able to distribute paper books to students, and community partnerships (like public libraries) that support students. In addition to the
Big Red Reads program through DPS, Alice is also the founder of
Books for Change USA.
Georgia Home Classroom
The Curriculum and Instruction division at the Georgia Department of Education teamed up with Georgia Public Broadcasting to develop Georgia Home Classroom. This partnership worked quickly to align the Georgia Standards of Excellence to existing GPB digital and broadcast resources. While students are learning from home during a global pandemic, the Georgia Home Classroom is a trusted set of resources accessible to all. Justin Hill, GaDOE Director of Curriculum and Instruction, Laura Evans, GPB Director of Education, and Meghan Welch, GaDOE Program Specialist, discuss how the project came about and where teachers, parents, and students can access the resources.
Partnering With Your Local Library
We recently sat down with
Roberta Gardner, Assistant Professor of Reading and Literacy Education at Kennesaw State University, and
Elaine Black, Director Of Youth Services at the Georgia Public Library Service, to bring you our first
L4GA Podcast. In this episode, we talk about school districts partnering with the local library. Dr. Gardner asks questions informed by her research-rich background and Elaine Black brings to the discussion her wide knowledge of the
GPLS – including partnership examples Georgia school districts. See this
one-page pdf with links to resources mentioned during the podcast.
Literacy in the Laundromat
Dr. Roberta Gardner and I sat down for a phone interview with Dr. Susan Neuman to discuss her research project around literacy in laundromats. You can find the executive summary of the project here. We discuss the “literacy events” that her research team observed when they placed simple and available resources in laundromats in New York City. Children – who might have been in the laundromat for TWO HOURS – entered the welcoming (couch, rug, play kitchen) space and were able to look at books and/or play with other literacy activities such as magnetic letters or puzzles. In a second round of observations, local librarians visited the laundromats weekly to facilitate activities. Think of the possibilities! The podcast conversation is informative and really sparks ideas on how this work can be done in Georgia.
