Southeastern NEWS

                                                       Southeastern Louisiana University
                                           Public Information Office
                                           publicinfo@selu.edu
                                           SLU 880, Hammond, LA 70402
                                           504/549-2341/fax 504-549-2061
    Date: 2/15/01
      Contact:                           Christina Chapple   25

SLU ACCEPTING TEACHERS' APPLICATIONS FOR EARLY LITERACY
INSTITUTE   JUNE 11-22
     HAMMOND -- Southeastern Louisiana University is accepting applications from
teachers and school teams to participate in the fifth year of its Early Literacy Initiative, a
professional development project designed to improve student literacy by enhancing teaching
and learning.
     Director Cynthia Elliot of the Southeastern College of Education and Human
Development said 42 teachers from 15 schools in eight parishes are participating in the Early
Literacy Initiative Project 2000-2001. Up to 50 pre-kindergarten through third grade teachers
will be selected for the 2001-2002 project, which includes the two-week Early Literacy Summer
Institute, June 11-22, and follow-up instruction during the academic year.
     "The focus of the institute," she said, "is to develop a team of teachers from a single
school who will implement literacy instruction in their classrooms and serve as leaders among
peers to enhance the present literacy program in their schools and districts."
     Participants will receive six hours of graduate credit, a $300 stipend, as well as additional
stipends for making presentations and attending conferences on early literacy, and approximately
$150 worth of classroom materials and professional books. Each school team will receive $1,200
worth of books for an early literacy library collection for readers in grades kindergarten through
third. 
     Carolyn Roman, who participated in the Early Literacy Initiative while teaching
kindergarten at Woodland Park Early Learning Center in Hammond, called the program "the best
thing that I have ever seen." Now principal at Roseland Elementary, Roman sent a teacher team
to the 2000-2001 institute and has implemented the literacy instruction in the school's
                             (MORE)
EARLY LITERACY INITIATIVE   Add One

kindergarten, first and second grades. "Our scores have begun to come up," she said. "Reading is
so much more fun for the students, and they are so proud to be able to read."
     Franklinton Primary's Carolyn Knight is also high on the program. After teaching for 24
years, 17 in kindergarten classrooms, "I'm not one to jump on every bandwagon that comes
along," she said. "This one is a keeper. This is the best program I've seen to reach every student.
I would not go back to teaching any other way."
     Elliott said that more than 50 research projects undertaken by Early Literacy Institute
participants have documented that all students make gains in literacy and that "low-progress
students are the children who make the greatest gains in reading and writing."
     April 13 is the application deadline. Teachers and schools interested in participating in
the Early Literacy Initiative may contact Elliot, 985-549-5269 or celliott@selu.edu, or site
coordinator Bridget Smolcich, 985-549-5263, to request an application.
                             -SLU-
Press release available online at www.selu.edu/NewsEvents/PublicInfoOffice/newsp01.htm