The College of Charleston has launched a Literacy Outreach Initiative (LOI) that will engage students in literacy-focused outreach both globally and locally. This initiative is in conjunction with the College Reads! book selection, Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. As part of this initiative, beginning October 4, more than 325 College of Charleston students have been engaged with Charleston County K-12 students about the book. More information on LOI.
The most prominent theme in Three Cups of Tea is the importance of education, and the Charleston County School District has identified literacy as one of its top issues. As a result, College students learned how to partner with teachers to implement a curriculum to share the picture book version of Three Cups of Tea with elementary school children and the youth edition with middle and high school students. For both versions, the curriculum has been created to imbue students with a joy of reading and to inspire them to become involved with their communities.
All volunteers attended training to learn how to implement the curriculum and to deliver engaging 45-minute lessons to K-12 students. Some volunteers signed up for as many as 30 hours.
School of Education, Health, and Human Performance Associate Professor Margaret Hagood, with assistance from teacher education colleagues, designed the curriculum for the picture book, and Assistant Professor Nicola Williams, together with graduate assistant Alex Sullivan, designed the curriculum for the young readers’ edition. The lessons are tied to the South Carolina state standards and focus on: connections between the background and lives of children in Charleston with the background and lives of children in Korphe; the need to develop multiple perspectives about difference; and issues of equality, social justice, and active citizenry.
The elementary curriculum is based on the picture book, Listen to the Wind, and includes five integrated lesson plans that address language arts (including reading, writing, vocabulary development), science and math, and social studies. Hagood says, “The hope is that these lesson plans will not only connect the CCSD students to content, but that they will also expand their understanding of (people)’s lives (both similarities and differences) across the globe.”
The young readers’ curriculum is four lesson plans for students in 4th-10th grades and was designed to be used at any point during the reading of the book: before, during or after the novel is read by the class. This allows the College students to come into classrooms despite where teachers and learners are in their reading of the book. All of the lessons focus on writing development, contain many online resources, and refer the reader to a specific text reference in the YR edition. Williams says, “The lessons are also meant to be used by instructors to suit the academic and social developmental needs of their students, to enable them to construct shared meaning in their individual classrooms rather than a focus on a scripted transmission of knowledge. In this way the lessons are meant to support the teachers and volunteers in being culturally competent.”
College of Charleston students are also organizing and implementing Greg Mortenson’s Pennies for Peace campaign to raise money to build a school in Afghanistan. Students are collaborating with elementary, middle, and high school students to implement the campaign by decorating collection jars and raising money. In addition, College students are helping with public relations and event planning for the Capital BookFest, a literacy-focused event scheduled for November 6.
For more information about the LOI initiative, contact Trisha Folds-Bennett at 843.953.6592.
For more information about the Three Cups of Tea curriculum, contact Margaret Hagood at 843.953.3377 or Nicola Williams at 843.953.3627.
