Empowering Teachers, Students, and Families
For almost 20 years the School Literacy and Culture Project (SLC) has promoted effective teaching through rigorous professional educational initiatives that emphasize early literacy, child development, writing and culture. Our work is based on the following guiding principles:
• Change requires teachers to become part of a professional learning community that places inquiry at its center.
• Teachers learn best when they can use their own classroom experience to examine their beliefs and practices.
• Issues of equity must permeate the fabric of professional development.
Building Creative Minds
The 2012 Creekmore Symposium
Thursday, April 12, 2012: 3:00 to 5:00
Click here for flyer.
Registration now open!
For Students: Creative Writing Camp
Teachers: Check out our Idea of the Month!
This month we explore the color books from Capstone Press
Click here to read more.
Welcome to Newest SLC Team Member: Debra Paz!
This fall we are delighted at the addition of Debra Paz as our new Associated Director for Early Literacy and Bilingual Programs. Debbie has taught bilingual prekindergarten and kindergarten for over 25 years in the public schools. She is a past HAAEYC teacher of the year and has worked with us many years as a mentor and seminar leader. In addition to continuing these roles, she will coordinate two special SLC collaboration projects -- the Ridgemont Early Childhood Center and the new Gabriela Mistral Literacy Lab.
Click Here for our most recent report to the SLC Advisory Board.
The Rice University Center for Education's School Literacy and Culture Project is funded solely by gifts, grants, and the fees paid by participating schools. We are a 501c(3) organization. Your gifts are tax-deductible. To donate to our program or to sponsor a teacher, please click here.
SLC Partners with HISD's Gabriela Mistral CEC to Create Model Literacy Lab
The Mistral Lab, which opened in August, has been created as a demonstration site for teachers striving to provide children with extensive opportunities for oral language development. This collaborative HISD/Rice venture to systematically support English Language Learners is the first of its kind in the U.S.! For a closer look, click here.
Our Early Literacy Research Wins National Award
Research published by SLC authors has received one of two annual awards for research by the National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators. Click here to read about this paper.
Literacy Leadership Team Trains Leaders
Thanks to generous funding from the Clayton Fund and the Powell Foundation, SLC was able to expand our Literacy Leadership Team, a group of expert teachers who gather monthly at Rice to read and discuss current research in the fields of early literacy and leadership theory.
School Literacy and Culture Project Team Members Honored
Congratulations to several members of the SLC leadership team who were recognized as “the best of the best” in the Houston area last year. For more information, please click here.
New Standards Correlation Available Online
The SLC Literacy Team has just finished correlating our early literacy program activities to state Pre-K standards.Click here to read more.
Ridgemont Collaboration Begins Third Year
Our largest campus collaboration is at the Ridgemont Campus in Fort Bend ISD. This center, unique in the Houston area, is a dawn-to-dusk facility providing services for infants to 5th graders, as well as their families. Click here to learn more.
New Program: Literacy in the Arts
Building on our longtime collaborations with Writers in the Schools and the Museum of Fine Arts: Rienzi, SLC has begun to collaborate with Houston Grand Opera's "Song of Houston" project , the Rice University gallery, and the Houston Playback Theatre. Click here to learn more.
School Writing Project hosts annual Spring Poetry Reading
On May 19, approximately 80 young writers and 200 parents, grandparents, and friends filled the Rice Grand Hall in an inspiring celebration of creativity. For more information on this program, click here. Photo by Scott Corron