Kappa Delta Pi hosts the Literacy Alive Event to help young local students practice their literacy skills.
VICTORIA SCHILLER / THE QUADRANGLE
Victoria Schiller, Senior Writer
On Wednesday, Feb. 12, Kappa Delta Pi (KDP), the education honor society, held their Literacy Alive event. Students K-3 were invited from surrounding areas to practice their literacy skills, while incorporating new and improved strategies for reading comprehension through games, various learning stations and free books. Literacy Alive has been an ongoing event for the past several years at Manhattan University. Its purpose is to enhance literacy within the community, while also reminding students that literacy skills can always be improved, no matter their age. The Quadrangle attended the event and had the opportunity to talk to faculty, as well as several students who planned and worked the event.
Ruth Zealand, Ph.D, has been a professor in the education department at MU since 2017 and is actively involved with the event each year.
“I love the energy that the KDP students have in putting it on,” Zealand said. “I actually have two favorite parts. I love to see the joy that they [students K-3] have in having older students who to them look like adults help them with the different, varied activities. In the past, we used to do read-alouds and have storybook characters. Mary-Abigail Caglione [KDP member and assistant to the community liaison] has created a lot of different activities on different levels for the children so there’s really something for everyone. And then, the fact that they can take a book home with them, there’s something about having a book as a present that is really rewarding and feels like a rich present.”
The Quadrangle caught up with several KDP members who had the chance to work the event. Pearl Marinas, a graduate student in the five-year program for special and adolescent education, is the fundraising chair for KDP. Marinas shared what it is like to hold events such as Literacy Alive after having the real-world experience of student teaching.
“I student taught for the high school side,” Marinas said. “But, I’m definitely seeing a lot of deficits in terms of reading comprehension, so I think that an event like Literacy Alive is super important especially to start early on for these kids, because they need that extra reinforcement. Especially if they’re having people who are education majors, we know about these strategies, we’re practicing them in the classroom and now to get to practice with the students – [it] is especially rewarding. Also, to be able to help the students in a way and have them come to campus, bringing them books, and having their parents involved as well really makes a difference.”
Marinas also talked about the main factors that inspired the event.
“In terms of KDP, we’ve been seeing a lot of reading deficits, especially because of COVID, a lot of students are really behind in terms of reading and comprehension skills,” Marinas said. “We wanted to bring something that would be really fun and engaging for the students. To have something like this where they’re able to have fun with us and learn these kinds of skills is really what we wanted to do and have to inspire the students.”
Marinas was in charge of the Wordle station at the event and chose random or school-related, five letter words to present to the students attending.
“I’ve spent the most time at the Wordle station, just because I really love the game and I think it’s fun to have,” Marinas said. “It’s a really good idea if you have a whole class doing it and then each student can pick a word each day. I feel like that’s exciting for them. It increases their vocabulary, those critical thinking skills in terms of where the letters go and things like that, just bringing more awareness to the alphabet, words and letters.”
Matteo Casale, a junior adolescent education major with a concentration in history, also led a station at Literacy Alive. He spoke about his favorite moments during the event.
“I think it’s just engaging the kids in a fun way with reading,” Casale said. “A lot of kids, when they think about reading, they don’t want to do it or whatever the case might be. Just trying to find ways to make it fun is really great. It takes away that stigma of reading and makes them excited to have to deal with reading or words.”
Casale also shared what was most rewarding about being a part of such an ongoing event for the education department at MU.
“Spending time with the different members of KDP, but also the kids in the community that are coming, it’s a fun opportunity to meet them and talk with them for a little bit and see what it’s like for them,” Casale said. “Every grade level that comes through the doors is always different from when you were at that point or stage of your life, so it’s always interesting to see the differences between those periods of time and understand how they’re interpreting and dealing with the world at that stage of their life compared to when I was.”
KDP has several upcoming events for the spring semester, including their new member induction in late March, as well as their Teacher Appreciation Day event in April.