YSL.com used as reading curriculum
The Young Saint Louis.com website is being used
this spring to help a group of St. Louis area 8th graders
"open up their literary horizons."
Kids from St. Louis and St. Louis County middle schools
are participating--with their parents--in a special GEAR
UP Literacy Academy. The sessions are being held on eight
Saturday mornings during March and April.
Dr. Gwen Turner of the University of Missouri-St. Louis'
College of Education is directing the academy sessions.
She said the purpose of the academy is to impress on kids
"the power of words.'"
One of the unique things about the Academy is that at
least one parent has to accompany his or her 8th child
and stay for the whole two-hour sessions. At some times,
the adults have separate sessions and at other times the
kids and the parents are together.
Fourteen-year-old Dahkesia Brownlee is an 8th grader
at Normandy Middle School. She has been accompanied by
both of her parents, Ricky and Cheryl Brownlee.
Mr. Brownlee said his wife signed Dahkesia up for the
academy sessions. He said, "I brought her to the sessions
and then decided to stick it out with her too." He said
he was interested in one of the early lessons that focused
on a new money game for kids.
In March, YSL.com described a new interactive
game invented by the local financial firm, A.G. Edwards.
"My Savings Quest" lets kids create online a personal
budget. Then, the kids make monthly financial choices
to stay within their income.
Dahkesia said, "It's necessary for kids to know about
how to handle money."
Fourteen-year-old Mike Goldman of Florissant is an 8th
grader at Kirby Middle School. His dad, Michael, said
he volunteered to accompany his son "in order to enhance
Mike's ability to read and understand."
He said he felt his son "needed to pick up the pace of
his school work."
Mike admitted that, at first, he didn't want to come
to the academy sessions. "But, now they are okay," he
said.
Teresa Davis has her 14-year-old twins, Ciera and Shatera,
at the academy. The twins are 8th graders at Normandy
Middle School. They already have two older siblings in
college. One is at St. Louis University and the other
is at University of Missouri-Rolla.
Mrs. Davis said she wants to make sure the twins "have
the skills they need for college."
Ciera said she likes the idea YSL.com can be read
like a newspaper. She likes the idea of having monthly
book reviews. (The website has reviews of four kids
books every month.)
Shatera likes the idea of being able to read about other
St. Louis area kids. "There's hands-on stuff about what
the kids want to become," she said.
The GEAR UP Academy sessions include a variety of other
activities that also add to broadening their "literary
horizons."
What is GEAR UP?
The GEAR UP Literacy Academy is just one part of a
comprehensive program seeking to help area students for
college and beyond. The learn more visit www.stlgearup.org.
Once on the homepage, click on the Students icon
on the left side of the page. That will tell (1) what
GEAR UP can do for you, (2) about your school's GEAR Up
liaison representative and (3) paying for college.
Another important part of GEAR UP is the Pathfinder
program. That can help you in your career choices and
planning, in creating resumes and in finding jobs.
One of the Saturday GEAR UP Academy activities involved
using a personal camera to take pictures of their activities
during a week. They then will arrange the pictures on
a "story board" that explains their everyday life in pictures.
The "story boards" of all the kids will be put together
in a documentary about themselves.
The academy kids come from 18 St. Louis city and eight
suburban schools. At their first academy session, each
kids is given a pre-test to measure their reading ability.
They'll get a post-test at the end of the academy series.
In addition to the parents, each kid is linked with a
UMSL education student who is their tutor during the Saturday
sessions.
One of those college students is Zac Kenny. He's a 24-year-old
senior who is studying to be an elementary school teacher.
He is with Mike Goldman during the sessions.
Zac said he plans to teach 4th, 5th and 6th grade kids
when he becomes a teacher.
"I want to work with kids after they get their educational
foundation," he said. As a former engineering student,
he feels he will be able to help the older elementary
kids with their math and science studies.
Commenting on YSL.com, Zac said, "The website
stories are more in tune with these kids because most
are about other St. Louis area kids."
The parents are urged to get on the Internet with their
kids at home during the week. YSL.com has an archive
that includes over five years of past issues. That way,
the kids can find a number of stories that fit into their
personal interests.
The archive also has a Google search engine so kids can
find stories by subject without knowing exactly which
month a story appeared.
(The YSL.com website was used previously as
a curriculum for a summer reading class in the Ferguson-Florissant
School District. To read about those kids' reactions,
go to Past
Stories and click on July,
2001.)
