by Burk Krohe | Jun 4, 2024
There were a few moments when Cassetta Johnson knew that the New Leaf Literacies initiative was making an impact at Woerner Elementary School.
In one memorable instance, a student was flipping through a book about amphibians and stopped on a page featuring an axolotl – a prehistoric looking salamander – and enthusiastically demanded an explanation.
“He says, ‘What is this on this page!’” Johnson recalled with a laugh.
Without prompting, another student expressed his fondness for “Farmer Will Allen and the Growing Table,” a book about the real-life urban farmer and innovator, because he could see himself in the protagonist.
Those are just two examples of the joy and curiosity Johnson witnessed as a consulting literacy tutor with New Leaf Literacies. The innovative program is a partnership between the E. Des Lee Tutorial Initiative in the College of Education at the University of Missouri–St. Louis and Woerner Elementary School, which integrates lessons about gardening and the environment with responsive, project-based literacy education.
Over the course of three weeks this spring, UMSL literacy tutors and Woerner teachers collaborated to provide intensive literacy instruction to 40 kindergarten students for 90 minutes a day. The students participated in eco-themed reading and writing activities, but they also grew seedlings and planted vegetables. At the end of the program, each student received a certificate to commemorate the experience.
Rebecca Rogers, Curators’ Distinguished Professor and the E. Desmond Lee Endowed Professor of Tutorial Education, and Inda Schaenen, a scholar in residence with the E. Des Lee Tutorial Endowment, worked with Woerner Principal Kathy Matthews to spearhead the project.
“This is an example of a literacy initiative that came out of our partnership between community organizations, E. Des Lee Tutorial Initiative’s literacy tutors and scholars in residence who have expertise in literacy and project-based learning,” Rogers said.
