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The mission of The Literacy Center at SUNY New Paltz is two-fold: to provide our teacher candidates clinical opportunities in the diagnosis and remediation of reading and writing difficulties and to provide literacy instruction to children in our local mid-Hudson Valley communities. Literacy instruction includes the direct tutoring of children and adolescents, as well as consultation with teachers on literacy issues across the curriculum. In addition to our basic mission, we act as a link between school districts and community organizations interested in reading and writing excellence and we promote "best practices," based on current research, in literacy education.
The Literacy Center currently provides instruction to children in our local mid-Hudson Valley communities and beyond during the fall, spring and summer semesters. The facilitation of our programs require the support of our university faculty and staff, community members, local school districts, graduate assistants, work-study students, and volunteers.
Our programs meet the rigorous standards of Association for Advancing Quality in Educator Preparation.
Our Complimentary No-Fee Three Session Literacy Assessment Event
Dr. Sharon L. Russell, Associate Professor of Literacy Education at State University of New York New Paltz will be supporting the teachers/graduate candidates assessing and evaluating children chosen to participate in our complimentary three (3) session Literacy Assessment Event. Dr. Russell has been a certified K-12 Reading Specialist since 2000.
Children in grades 2 through 12 are considered for participation and encouraged to have an application submitted.
All graduate candidates administering and evaluating the assessments are certified teachers in the New York State. The graduate candidates will administer, analyze and create literacy intervention activities based upon assessment evaluations.
Assessments:
On September 10 and 17, graduate candidate clinicians will administer:
- The Qualitative Reading Inventory which includes word lists and passages with comprehension questions
- A phonics screener
- A spelling development assessment
- A writing sample assessment
Each clinician will complete a case study based upon evaluations of the assessments. On Tuesday, December 3, each child will receive a complimentary tutoring session after clinicians have been instructed by Dr. Russell with designing and implementing appropriate literacy activities. Following the December 3 session, graduate candidates will meet with parents only to report results of the case studies and their observations from the instructional sessions. Each parent will receive the written case study and recommendations to share with your child’s teacher or school.
Online Sessions:
Tuesday September 10th – 5:30-7:30 PM (assessments mixed with fun activities)
Tuesday September 17th – 5:30 – 7:30 PM (assessments mixed with fun activities)
Tuesday December 3rd – 5:15 – 7:15 PM (Tutoring Session for children)
Tuesday December 3rd - 7:20 – 7:50 PM (Parents only- case studies shared)
Spring or Summer Literacy Clinic
If parents want participating children to continue literacy tutoring in our Spring and Summer 2025 Literacy Tutoring Programs (approximately 30 hours of individual literacy intervention), these children will be given priority placement.
Parent Survey/Interview
Each parent of a participating child will receive an introductory email from their child’s graduate candidate clinician/teacher. Clinicians are encouraged to make phone calls to speak with parents of participating children to complete parent surveys. The more graduate candidate clinicians/teachers know about their participating children, the more effective the interventions they can provide.
Each child will be paired one-on-one with a graduate candidate teacher. All teachers are candidates in our Master’s Degree in Literacy Education Program graduating as NYS Licensed Reading Teachers. Parents of participating children commit to have their children participate in the three (3) literacy assessment sessions and to attend the concluding “parents only” session on December 3. Our literacy candidates need to complete a required number of literacy intervention hours to fulfill their New York State license requirements.
We are grateful for the opportunity to work with your children and provide important literacy information that can help with their future literacy development. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Dr. Sharon Russell russells@newpaltz.edu or Professor Samuel Slotnick (slotnics@newpaltz.edu), Literacy Center Coordinator.
To submit an application, please click “Register Here”.
Contact Us
Prof. Sam Slotnick
Literacy Center Coordinator
Office: Old Main Bldg. B101
Phone: 845-257-2809
E-mail: slotnics@newpaltz.edu
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Forms
Educational Recording and Consent Release Form 2023
