Broward County, the nation's fifth largest school district, is the program's largest effort, with a trained ALL teacher in 116 of the county's 127 elementary schools. The Verizon grant will enable USF to establish the program in Hillsborough County, the nation's 12th largest school district. By the end of their program, these first graders are reading at the class average. Children in ALL learn how to monitor their reading, search for information, correct themselves and cross-check their reading using photographs, King explained. That's a very hard thing for first graders to figure out.
Language has meaning and structure, or syntax, and visual information.
We train first graders to use all three. Program teachers participate in two semesters of graduate courses in early intervention theory and strategies taught by USF-certified trainers. The more tools that are at work to improve literacy at an early age, the better everyone will be long term. Verizon has provided us with a major tool for the local community with this grant, and we plan on making it an effective literacy contributor for years to come. Verizon Communications, the national communications company formed through the merger of GTE and Bell Atlantic, is committed to promoting literacy efforts.