COMMUNITY BASED LITERACIES IN THE SCHOOLS
Community Based Literacies in the Schools is a collaboration between UC Santa Barbara's Gevirtz Graduate School of Education (GGSE) and Santa Barbara Unified School District (SBUSD).
Through this partnership, 4th grade students visit the GGSE's McEnroe Reading and Language Arts Clinic to engage in various literacy-based activities that include small-group, reading discussions, digital storytelling, and associated hands-on projects. All activities are designed based on participating children's interests and all small-group sessions are facilitated by undergraduate “college buddies."
The 4th graders let their college buddies know what they are interested in learning about, prompting coordinating graduate students and the CBL program leader (Diana J. Arya) to locate and adapt relevant materials for each of the small collaborative groups. Undergraduate facilitators are supported every week with professional development sessions for debriefing previous sessions, practicing various reading strategies and planning for future sessions. A key instructional model used for reading discussions is the CRUSH-it model, which was designed by Dr. Arya based on research-based practices.