Institute for SoTL funded research is making a splash in MRU News – researchers Jodi Nickle and Scott Hughes from the Department of Education were profiled about their Read Up! Program, partnering teacher candidates with grades 1 and 2 students who were having difficulty with reading. This research was funded through the Marshall Family Foundation.

Along with the important gains for the children in their reading, the SoTL results were that teacher candidates, “reported on their own learning including the importance of planning and preparedness, assessing, posing effective questions, encouraging strategy use, and responding to the learner’s needs.” This means that the impact is not only to the children and the teacher candidates, but has ripple effects to their future students as well.

“(Throughout the program) our students talked about the big ideas,” says Nickel. “’How do I assess? How do I choose the best strategies?’ In addition, building a relationship with the child helped them to teaching responsively: ‘I know this child now. I know what they’re going to like, and what they’re not going to like,’ and so they had to kind of play it by ear and be a responsive teacher, which I think is really important.”

 

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Read Up! Program supports early literacy