History
The ILS advances literacy learning for children and youth by advocating for effective educational practices in settings other than schools. The ILS’s involvement in literacy-based youth education initiatives is distinguished and varied. Our work includes:
providing professional development and technical assistance to practitioners in community-based organizations;
eadership development for program staff in the areas of reading, writing, and curriculum development;
policy development, evaluation, and dissemination efforts for the youth field; and,
direct services through innovative Youth Writers Summer Programs.
Over the years, the ILS has supported after-school programming through long-term projects such as the Youth Practitioners Institute, 21st Century Community Learning Center/District 5, the Children's After-School Literacy Project, and numerous initiatives funded by the Robert Bowne Foundation, including, most recently, the Youth Education Scholars project. Our long-term efforts have also led to multi-year workshops in reading and writing connections for children and bookmaking for The After-School Corporation (TASC). In the late 1980s and throughout the 1990s, ILS staff were active members of the Bowne Professional Development Group, a two-decade effort that resulted in the establishment of ongoing professional development services for staff of after-school programs throughout New York City. Much of our work on behalf of the Bowne Foundation was conducted in collaboration with the Literacy Assistance Center and with Brooklyn-In-Touch, a management-consulting firm now called the Nonprofit Connection.
Our approaches to literacy learning for children and youth in after-school youth programs reflect professional-development models that have been developed by the New York City Writing Project. We support after-school program staff by helping them provide opportunities for practitioners to share their own expertise, reflect on their practice, engage in their own reading and writing, become acquainted with relevant theory, learn from student work, and experience first-hand new strategies and approaches. We seek to:
create literacy-rich learning environments;
expand and support programs' approaches to literacy education, including integration with the arts;
assist youth practitioners in developing practical ways to link reading and writing with youth development;
create summer programs for youth in a college setting that draw upon their experiences and imagination and introduce possibilities for writing in today’s world; and,
contribute to the knowledge base of the youth-literacy field.
Our Approaches
Current efforts for after-school programs include: Inquiry projects where groups of youth practitioners meet over a year's time to explore a literacy issue of importance to them and to their programs.
Ongoing workshops for youth practitioners focused on theory and practice in language and literacy development.
Reading, Writing, and Publishing , a series of workshops for youth program staff on assisting children in writing and publishing their own books.
Youth Writers Institutes, a summer program that offers high school students a fellowship to attend a three-week credit-bearing course in creative and academic writing. In small group- and classroom settings at Lehman College, teacher-consultants from the New York City Writing Project facilitate active learning for these youth, culminating in a publication of participants’ work.
Some of these initiatives include:
Youth Education Scholars: Practitioner Inquiry
This type of program offering provides youth practitioners unique opportunities to build leadership capacities in their programs and across a network of after-school programs through a focused inquiry into the ways in which children's and young adult literature can be used and enriched in the after-school setting. Structured as a 10-month inquiry, participants share, analyze and discuss literature for children and young adults and develop ways to use these texts and supporting activities in the context of after-school programs. Using an inquiry process, they conduct individual studies of self-selected topics related to the teaching of literature. The inquiry culminates in a publication of annotated bibliographies, supplementary resources, sample teaching activities, and essays describing their inquiry into children's and young adult literature.
Workshop Series
Image + Text: Exploring Writing Through Photography. After-school educators explore a variety of literacy strategies to support discussions, writing, and image making. In addition, they learn about professional artists who incorporate word and image in their work, and then, in small groups, take pictures and create "image + word" projects of their own.
Poetry & Spoken Word: A Workshop Series for After-school Educators. Youth practitioners are exposed to a variety of effective poetry lessons and resources to use with young people. Participants write collaborative poems, poems inspired by published poets, and poems celebrating places. They are also introduced to techniques for teaching spoken-word poetry to young people and experimenting with performance-based activities. In addition to learning about "poetry circles" for discussing poetry, participants share work created in the program at a final celebratory reading.
Youth Writers Summer Programs
Our summer programs for youth are designed for high school students who love to write and seek academic enrichment and artistic expression. Structured as a three-week institute, students from New York City public schools participate in daily workshops that include writing exercises, discussions of literature, conferences with experienced writers, and opportunities to explore through various media New York City resources and cultural centers that feature writing and writers. Throughout the institute, participants draft and revise poems, stories, articles, and essays, some of which are selected for a final publication.
For more information about Institute for Literacy Studies literacy-based programs in settings other than schools, please contact Felicia George, Youth Programs Liaison, at 718-960-8758.
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