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AT A GLANCE » Some 80 kids at PS 25 - MS 354 met the challenge of reading 100 books during the 2006-07 school year. Of those, 60 attended the TASC/CAMBA after-school program, which feeds kids’ reading appetites with an after-school lending library. |
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The TASC Masters of Literacy Program (TML) is a multi-faceted approach to creating literacy-rich environments for kids who attend after-school programs TML provides programs with extensive collections of books that constitute lending libraries for students. Parents and care-givers have access to their own after-school libraries with useful texts, such as guides to choosing high schools and storybooks they can read with their kids. Many sites host popular family and community read-alongs, intergenerational memoir projects and other literacy events.
The program enables each site to hire a librarian to teach and to open the school library during after school hours. Students can browse and borrow books, conduct original research projects, participate in book clubs and create interpretive art projects based on books, among other activities. It provides sites with the KidzLit curriculum, with its collection of books that draw on kids’ real-life experiences and relate them to literature.
TML also offers many professional development opportunities for after-school staff. Three yearly conferences offer TML site directors, administrators, librarians, and staff opportunities to learn about trends in after-school literacy, to discuss successes and challenges in their programs, and to receive training on interdisciplinary approaches to literacy. Among TASC’s conference partners are Sesame Workshop, TIME for Kids and the New York City Department of Education Office of Library Services.
The program provides the staff of elementary school programs with training in the Kidz Lit curriculum, and middle and high school programs with training that employs “Real Stories,” a program that strongly emphasizes reading and writing by and about adolescents. Both concentrations help kids develop core values of helpfulness, fairness, personal responsibility and respect for others.
TASC Masters of Literacy receives support from The Reginald and Lois Collier Fund and The Staten Island Foundation.
