Georgia Southern professors use grant to enhance literacy development efforts in Southeast Georgia

Two Georgia Southern University researchers are continuing to advance literacy development efforts in Southeast Georgia thanks to a $50,000 grant.  

The Sandra Dunagan Deal Center for Early Language and Literacy awarded the grant to Sally Brown, Ph.D., and Alisa Leckie, Ph.D., of the College of Education, to enhance support for their Reading Room initiative. 

“The rooms are in schools, churches and community centers,” explained Brown. “We’re basically trying to target families with young children in their environments.” 

Brown says their research was inspired by the reading room studies (Salas de Lectura) from Mexico, which demonstrated the success of community-based spaces where people of all ages were welcome to read. 

“When the families come, we have books set up for them to participate in an independent reading with their child,” she said. “They read with their child for about 20 minutes. Then we engage the family in a read-aloud. If we have multilingual families, we do the read-aloud in multiple languages.”

“Literacy equals knowledge,” she said. “Children want to know more about their world. If we give them opportunities to learn, they can build knowledge that adds to their confidence and makes them feel empowered.”

The rooms focus on language development, which is crucial to reading development. Brown said that if kids are immersed in the rich language and vocabulary of stories, it will reinforce literacy skills taught in public schools.  

“In 2023, 41 percent of third-grade students were reading at or above grade level,” Brown said. “Only 17 percent of students coming from homes where English isn’t the first language spoken were reading at or above grade level.” 

The grant funding has helped them establish new locations in Chatham, Bulloch and Effingham counties, giving Georgia Southern College of Education students the opportunity to work directly with children and their families, while coordinating lesson agendas and facilitating the Reading Rooms. 

Brown and Leckie’s initiative is part of a bigger plan to spread literacy throughout the Southeast. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp recently announced a $5.5 million grant to support the development of a literacy center at Georgia Southern.

Brown said there’s still a lot of work ahead, but she’s looking forward to seeing how the communities respond to their initiative. 

“It’s about paying it forward,” she said. “You can see the difference these Reading Rooms are making, especially when their faces light up because they’ve found the perfect book. We have kids come who would say, ‘Oh, my mom dragged me here, I’m not really into reading.’ But at the end of the session, they’ll ask when the next one is. To see something like that…it’s just really special.”