UTSA Downtown Campus
UTSA to offer free summer reading program for high schoolers
(May 23, 2002)--This summer, the University of Texas at San Antonio will offer a free reading tutoring program for area high school students. UTSA graduate students working toward reading specialist certification or a master's in education with a concentration in literacy will provide the one-on-one tutoring at the UTSA Reading Place/Plaza de Lectura, located at the Downtown Campus.
Tutors will focus on helping students understand how to make meaning from text and on building awareness of themselves as readers. Tutors will provide strategies for reading both narrative and informational texts. Students will also be encouraged to write during the sessions.
Each semester since its 1999 opening, the UTSA Reading Place has provided literacy tutoring to some 100 younger students, those in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. According to program director and UTSA Assistant Professor of Reading Susan Keehn, this will be the first offering at the high-school level.
"Illiteracy rates in San Antonio are higher than those in Texas and in the nation as a whole," said Keehn. "We need to help our young people develop strong reading skills. Reading is the ticket to their individual success and to San Antonio's economic future."
The UTSA Reading Place tutoring program is being offered free of charge as a community service. Keehn added the cost of similar, private tutoring programs runs from $250 to $1,200.
Participants will be expected to attend 12 one-hour sessions, beginning June 11. There are openings for 50 students, on a first-come, first-served basis. To participate, students must be in grades 9-12 and must complete a one-page application. A parent or guardian must also sign a separate consent form. Student application forms are being distributed to local schools and are also available from the UTSA Reading Place. Parental consent forms will be provided to those whose children are accepted.
For more information on the program or to request an application form, call
the UTSA Reading Place/Plaza de Lectura, at (210) 458-2649.
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© The University of Texas at San Antonio, 2002