The McGuffey Reading Center at the University of Virginia is the second oldest operating reading center in the United States. For the past decade, McGuffey faculty have actively sought to extend their courses to teachers who live distant from the University. This highly successful program, now in its second decade of service, works directly with school districts to tailor courses to local needs.
All courses carry graduate credit and are directly transferable to degree programs.
This course was designed in response to the Virginia state legislature's Early Intervention Reading Initiative urging school districts to provide intervention programs early to prevent reading problems. Course materials include training tapes and manuals for the volunteer tutorial intervention program, Book Buddies. The Foundations course focuses on studying and understanding the development of literacy, from earliest emergent stages through mature reading, writing, and spelling. Children's literacy development will be presented in relation to instruction. This course is one of the master's series courses and also fulfills requirements of several licensure areas.