A new literacy program\u00a0developed\u00a0in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders\u00a0is employing evidence-based practices to boost the\u00a0literacy skills of young high school students.<\/p>\n
Doctoral program Director and Professor Barbara Ehren\u00a0designed the\u00a0language-focused literacy program,\u00a0named “Bridge Builders Academy,” for a\u00a0cohort\u00a0of rising\u00a0freshmen at Evans High School, located in the Pine Hills area of Orlando. The\u00a0group\u00a0consists of\u00a040 students with a demonstrated need for increased reading proficiency.<\/p>\n
Ehren\u00a0launched the program\u00a0in June\u00a0with a six-week summer session for the cohort at Evans High. The session\u00a0included collaborative and individual classroom exercises\u00a0led by two of the high school’s teachers, Ivette Torres and Paulette Stadelman.<\/p>\n
Ten\u00a0UCF master’s degree students in communication sciences and disorders also\u00a0participated in the session by\u00a0leading small-group exercises. Clinical Educator Tom Ehren and doctoral student Kimmerly Harrell supervised\u00a0their\u00a0efforts.<\/p>\n
“This gave our graduate\u00a0students experience planning and implementing language intervention for adolescents,” Ehren said.\u00a0“The Evans students said working with\u00a0our students was their favorite part of the program.”<\/p>\n
Bridge Builders Academy continues this fall with the cohort taking\u00a0intensive language\u00a0classes offered by teachers at Evans under the guidance of Ehren and her team. In addition, Ehren and Harrell are exploring opportunities for empirical research studies.<\/p>\n
“Our partnership with Evans\u00a0is an excellent example of direct service to the community coupled with opportunities to prepare graduate students\u00a0for their profession as well as to conduct research,” Ehren said. “It is also replicable in other communities with a high percentage of K-12 students who struggle with literacy.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new literacy program\u00a0developed\u00a0in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders\u00a0is employing evidence-based practices to boost the\u00a0literacy skills of young high school students. Doctoral program Director and Professor Barbara Ehren\u00a0designed the\u00a0language-focused literacy program,\u00a0named “Bridge Builders Academy,” for a\u00a0cohort\u00a0of rising\u00a0freshmen at Evans High School, located in the Pine Hills area of Orlando. The\u00a0group\u00a0consists of\u00a040 students with a demonstrated need for increased…","protected":false},"author":150,"featured_media":68253,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-twocol.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-68251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colleges","category-community"],"yoast_head":"\n