Fostering a Love of Reading

November 29, 2017 - What better way to encourage young students to read than to give them a book all about themselves. This week, elementary education students from the UofSC College of Education presented their self-written books to second graders at Irmo Elementary School, following a semester spent in the Lexington-Richland District Five school.

"The college students have worked in the second grade classroom since August as part of their in-service training, " said clinical faculty member Beth White. "During this time, the students wrote, and in most cases illustrated, books about each child in hopes of fostering a love or writing and reading from an early age."

As part of its curriculum, College of Education students spend between one to two semesters in classrooms of public schools around the Midlands working directly with young students alongside veteran teachers.

"I feel that this literacy course was really important for us because it allowed us to learn from the young students - how they best learn and how to best teach them. I really enjoyed working with my student. He was already a great reader but hopefully, I helped him come out of his shell some," said senior elementary education student, VJ Pridgen.