My service learning proposal

Organization - Tar Heel Reader, http://tarheelreader.org/

Volunteer information – Helping Educators, identify, create and modify text for beginning readers.

Brief outline of the organization – “They began this project with the goal of creating a framework that would guide the development of electronic books geared toward school-aged students with the most severe multiple disabilities. As
We made progress in defining the framework; we began to understand that we had been successful in developing a framework that would address our original goal and a much broader population of school-age students with disabilities who read at beginning levels despite their age or the nature of their disability. Roughly 90% of students with multiple disabilities never learn to read above the2nd grade level (Koppenhaver & Yoder, 1992). While the numbers are not quite as dramatic for Students with milder disabilities, results on the most recent National Assessment for Educational Progress (2000) suggest that approximately 10% of all fourth grade students read at the 2nd grade level or below.”



How did you select this project? I look into the options that were presented to us from the course information and I found a organization that really interested me. I love to read! I felt this would be a great way to help others enjoy the love of reading.


Who benefits from the work of this organization? “Students; with significant disabilities in their earliest stages of literacy.”

What service will you be providing? The service that I will be providing is. I will be “Helping to write a collection of free, easy-to-read, and accessible books on a wide range of topics. Each book can be speech enabled and accessed using multiple interfaces (i.e. switches, alternative keyboards, touch screens, and dedicated AAC devices). The books may be downloaded as slide shows in PowerPoint, Impress, or Flash format.” The project needs people to write books using all the tools they offer. I would like to write as many books as I can in the twelve hours that I have been given. I will be kept busy I am sure there are quit a few categories to write in.




Is training or preparation necessary/ available? The site gives a easy step by step instruction on how to make use of the program.
1. Use the built-in search to find pictures on Flickr or upload your own.
2. When you find a picture you like, just click on it with your left mouse button and it will be added to a page in your book. Repeat for each page.
3. You can change the order of the pages and delete any you decide you don’t like using the buttons on each page.
4. Provide a title for your book, and tags to make it easier to find.
5. And a simple caption for each picture.
When you’re satisfied with the collection of pages you’ve produced just hit the Publish my book button or click on Save my book as a draft to work on it another day.
Read and share your book online in the browser or offline as a PowerPoint, Impress, or Flash presentation.
The above information was taken from the web site.

How does the organization and the community service learning experience addressing your interest or concerns for society? The idea of no child left behind is something that I believe in. I believe literacy to be very important for society. I have always been an avid reader; to be able to have the chance to help others in this area makes me happy.

How does this community service learning work relate to the course? To open doors and give people the ability to volunteer online electronically. To be able to have this technology available for anyone to reach out and help others using various technical wonders is just what we talk about in this course.

Cheers AB