HARTMAN CENTER
Hartman
Literacy and Learning Center is a teaching, research
and service site that houses the Family Literacy Project.
The Literacy Project is designed to improve the quality
of literacy instruction provided by teachers, and
the literacy acquisition of urban children. Undergraduate
teachers-in–training serve as tutors for children
from inner-city Milwaukee schools. Faculty reviews
lesson plans and supervises the tutoring sessions.
Research examines factors that relate to growth in
the children’s reading abilities. Research is
also conducted to investigate the effectiveness of
our teacher training in literacy instruction by following
graduates into their classrooms.
Significance
to Marquette University and Scholarly Community
The Hartman
Center exemplifies the Jesuit mission of education,
cura personalis, and models the College of Education’s
mission of Care for Knowledge, Profession and Person
in the following ways.
-
Care
for Knowledge: Research on the literacy development
of children that attend our after-school tutoring
program provides much needed knowledge of how
to help children at-risk of failing to learn to
read due to poverty and lack of educational resources.
Our literacy project is unique in that it involves
children, their parents, classroom teachers, and
our undergraduate teachers-in-training. No other
program in the country is currently using this
model to examine the effects of intervention programs
designed for young readers.
-
Care
for the Profession: Developing the professional
identity of teachers-in-training as well as inservice
teachers is exemplified by visits made to schools
by our undergraduate teachers-in-training, conferences
with parents, and reports on the children sent
to parents and school teachers. Our teachers-in-training
are learning what it means to care for the child
in the context of their families and schools.
-
Care
for the Person, especially in service to others:
Our undergraduate teachers-in-training are learning
that care for others means not a patronizing “let
me help you” but a deep understanding of
cultures other than their own and ways to use
differences to enhance learning for all. Likewise
we demonstrate care for our teachers-in-training
by providing detailed constructive feedback in
person and in writing designed to help them grow
as teachers.
Objectives
The goals
of the Hartman Literacy and Learning Center are to:
- Improve the literacy development of Milwaukee inner-city
children as measured by individual assessments of
their reading abilities over time.
- Improve the involvement of families in the literacy
development of their children, by providing: 1- materials
for children to read with their parents and suggestions
to help parents support their children's reading,
2- literacy events where families come to hear well
know children's authors, and read their materials,
3- parent conferences where tutors help parents understand
what we're teaching their children and how they can
help, and 4- celebratory events that acknowledge the
children's participation in the project and give them
a book.
- Improve urban teacher education in literacy for
those who are planning to teach or are already teaching
in inner-city elementary schools in Milwaukee as measured
by questionnaires on their literacy practices and
video taped lessons.
Articles
An integrated strategies approach: Making word instruction work for beginning readers by Dr. Linda Allen
Factors that predict success in an early literacy intervention project by Drs. Lauren Leslie & Linda Allen
For more information
about the Hartman Literacy and Learning Center, please
contact the Center Director, Dr. Kathleen Clark (kathleen.clark@marquette.edu)
or Mrs. Coreen Bukowski (Email:
coreen.bukowski@marquette.edu
Phone: 414-288-7235).
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