W&L Students Create Take-Home Literacy Kits for Families   Parents in Buena Vista who want extra reading help for their children now have a new way to practice at home, thanks to an innovative project developed by Washington and Lee University students. As part of their course in Teaching Elementary Reading, the W&L students have created take-home literacy kits for families at the Enderly Heights Elementary School. The kits are designed to give parents a different way to help their children with reading. The seven Family Literacy Kits were presented to the Buena Vista School Board on May 19 by some of the students and their instructor Haley Wright Sigler, assistant director of teacher education. “The goal is to empower parents with focused strategies for the home, as opposed to parents spending their own time finding appropriate activities,” said Sigler. Sigler partnered with Pat Fox, the Title I reading specialist at Enderly Heights, to make the kits as effective as possible. Fox suggested that the kits have separate themes that mirror those used by the school’s teachers in kindergarten through second grade. Parents would be more likely to use the kits and teachers would see them as more relevant if they matched classroom instruction. The themes are animals, democracy, plants, fire safety, weather and seasons. The kits include books, puzzles and games on the chosen theme. They also include magnetic letters parents can use to practice spelling with their children. Each kit has a set of suggested questions parents can use when reading to their children and word play games or poems that also follow the theme. Fox said that she particularly appreciated that the books and activities did not pertain to only one specific grade level. The kits provide books and activities across the grade levels so that a whole family can participate,” she said. “The care and thoughtfulness that went into each kit is very evident.” The kits teach the National Reading Panel’s five core areas of reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. “The students in my class chose the contents of the kits,” said Sigler. “As I taught the class throughout the semester students would learn new content and they would learn something new that is important for teaching reading and would add it to the list of things to include in the kits.” Sigler explained that students in her class have always produced a final project for the Teaching Elementary Reading course, but that, in the past, she was the only one who saw their work. “I’m constantly telling my students to make projects and assignments relevant and authentic for children. This was my attempt to practice what I preach. These kits have a genuine purpose: they demonstrate knowledge of the course content, while also providing a service to the community,” she said. “Knowing that the kits would end up in the hands of parents and children motivated students for the hours of work they devoted to the kits.” The literacy kits will be kept in Fox’s classroom at Enderly Heights. Parents can request the kits or teachers can recommend the kits to parents of children they think would benefit from some extra reading practice at home. “I envision teachers using some of the materials in class, which would generate interest in the students who would then have an opportunity to take the kits home to share with their families. Everything the family would need is already included in the kits,” said Fox. “Dr. Sigler and her students had a wonderful vision. Through their hard work this vision has come to fruition, and our students will be the beneficiaries of their thoughtfulness,” she added. “We can't thank them enough.” The Family Literacy Kits were funded by a $600 grant from the Dean of the College Office at W&L.

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