University Advancement

Public Relations and Strategic Communications

NEWS RELEASE

CSUN Center Leads Children, Their Families into the Joys of Reading

(NORTHRIDGE, Calif., April 4, 2007) — The Los Angeles Times Literacy Center at Cal State Northridge has a more than 30-year history of raising the literacy skills of local children and their families.

It’s come a long way since 1972, when Northridge first established a reading clinic where master’s degree students in its College of Education could work with children facing literacy problems.

Renamed the Los Angeles Times Literacy Center in 1992 as the result of a generous gift from the Times Mirror Foundation, the center has grown to serve more than 3,500 children in grades 2-12 and their families. In that time, nearly 2,000 teacher candidates have provided supervised literacy services to children. Local schools refer children to the center, a majority of whom mirror intergenerational literacy problems. Families pay for literacy tutoring, but on a sliding scale each semester. Scholarships are available.

Elementary education professor Nancy Prosenjak directs the literacy center, which prepares graduate students to take a leadership role in school-based and community literacy programs. Last year, 140 teacher candidates served a like number of children and their families, but the center’s five-year goal is to triple those figures.

The Los Angeles Times Literacy Center is one of four service units under the umbrella of the Teaching, Learning and Counseling consortium (TLC) in the Michael D. Eisner College of Education. They all share in a mission to prepare educational professionals to serve the diverse educational needs of the region.

"Families seek help from these four service units to address a variety of needs," said Arlinda Eaton, the college’s associate dean. "We have recently established the TLC to serve as a clinical-training, demonstration and research site for the college where we are developing a model of transdisciplinary, collaborative support for families."

The consortium serves as a "one-stop" shop for families and offers CSUN students an opportunity to work together in assessing, prescribing services, offering interventions and evaluating the effectiveness of their work.

"We find that clients who initially approach us for assistance with literacy often have other issues we can be helpful with because of the variety of services offered under one roof," Eaton said. "We are very excited by the potential of the transdisciplinary approach and we plan to involve students from several different campus departments and programs in a way that will allow them to bring their combined expertise to individual cases."

Literacy tutors are elementary and secondary education master’s degree students who work with the same two clients throughout the semester. Many tutors are working towards the designation of reading/language arts specialist, a qualification above and beyond a teaching credential or advanced degree. "Learning is a lifelong activity," Prosenjak said, "and learning how to read doesn’t just happen in school. Families need to know about how children learn and conversely learn how to support their children as they learn to read. While their children receive tutoring, I teach a concurrent session for parents where they can learn to value reading as a skill and learn to help their children become passionate readers.

"Some parents are not native English-speakers, but we encourage them to read to their children in whatever language they speak. One of the most important aspects of creating readers is to find engaging material. I also teach parents how to choose the perfect book for their child’s interests," she said.

On a recent evening, the literacy center is bustling with children and their families. Recently remodeled, it offers a colorful and engaging environment carried through in the selection of computer software, visual aids and books that tutors use with each child to build vocabulary and reading skills. Surveys show that what a child learns from tutoring sessions can be enhanced at home, so counselor trainees from CSUN’s Mitchell Family Counseling Clinic meet with parents in a separate room.

Counselors remind parents of their children’s varying capabilities and backgrounds, an important consideration when evaluating skill levels. They encourage them to modify their expectations accordingly and to focus on what is an acceptable expectation for their child. Parents also are asked to describe the reading and learning challenges facing their children in school. Amid laughter and nodding heads, the parents share motivational strategies and, picking up cues from the counselor, remind each other not to overreact when their children are experiencing learning difficulties or delays in developing literacy skills.

"I had my son in two different private schools," said Ronael Thomas, one of the parents, "but I didn’t see the type of achievement that I expected or hoped for. Since enrolling him in this program, I have seen real growth in his reading capabilities, and I attribute that to the motivational skills we have all learned here."

As the session comes to an end, parents reunite with their children and gather in a circle for a poetry reading. Children who volunteer to read out loud receive a bookmark or poster as encouragement. Everyone listens attentively as the children share their rhymes and poems.

"Children we have worked with over the years leave knowing more about themselves as readers and learners and are prepared to be more successful at school. The experience we have with books carries us a long way in life," Prosenjak said. "We hope that in addition to teaching children how to be better readers, we can help them find the joy in reading that will make them lifelong readers."