Abstract:

In Texas, all individuals that are of school age (5 yrs. to 18 years of age) must be provided a free public education no matter where they are located – Hospitals, homebound, alternative schools, detention centers, etc. The research shows that teaching a student in any non-traditional environment poses extreme risk to student success. There is no higher risk than teaching literacy to incarcerated youth in one of the largest Juvenile Detention Centers in the United States. To counter the high-risk environment in the detention center, a team of University of Houston-Downtown (UHD) researchers, educators and preservice teaching candidates joined in a partnership with educators from the largest detention schools in the state. Over a six-year period, they develop a very successful researched based literacy program whose successful results have been documented, presented, and published at previous IATED Conferences.

Unfortunately, this past year due to unexpected circumstances, the teacher candidates from the teacher preparation program were not able to participate in the service-learning project. The research has shown that the UHD teacher candidates are an integral piece of the puzzle in providing a successful reading program in the harsh educational environment of the Juvenile Detention Center (JUVE). To counter the loss of volunteers, the principal of the school created a unique and innovative plan that utilized literacy and technology for both the students in the school and the teacher candidates. The result was a revolutionary new idea of using book club within book club conducted virtually between the teacher candidate book club and incarcerated youth book club.

This project was able to engage two groups of students. The teacher candidates were already successful in school and loved literacy. They needed to learn how to share that success and love for literacy with students from difficult learning environments who were struggling to be successful in school. The students in the JUVE Center were struggling to understand how literacy could be an important part of their lives because they did not typically love reading and usually had limited use of technology. This partnership helped both groups learn how to connect to each other through literacy and technology. This program was unique because allowing incarcerated youth to communicate with anyone outside the detention center has never been allowed. By resolving problems within the system, participants were able to engage in literacy.

Conference attendees will get a first had look at the most recent results. The outcomes of the study showed that when students read literature they could connect with they were able to use their reading time in class more efficiently. They were able to sustain reading time to connect to the literature through reading responses. The teacher candidates unique and different ways to build connections with their students. Most importantly, as the students engaged in the reading process, they found that they were able to participate more in the learning process. They were willing to read more in order to understand the materials. Create a group response that the teacher candidates could respond to in order for them to make connections.

Keywords:

Incarcerated Youth, Literacy, High Risk Youth, Preservice Teachers, Technology.