Posted on Thursday, April 10, 2008
Dr. Eileen Morelli, Westminster College associate professor of education, will present "CHIPS: A College/High School Interactive Literacy Project" at Faires Faculty Forum on Wednesday, April 16, at 11:40 a.m. in the Sebastian Mueller Theater in the McKelvey Campus Center.
"In 2004, a literacy project was developed between ninth-grade social studies teachers in Ohio and my Education 351 Reading in the Content Area class," Morelli said. "The goals of the project were: to improve reading and writing in the content area of the ninth-grade class and improve the Ohio Graduation Test scores; to transfer the literacy concepts from the Education 351 class to help students improve their teaching skills; to learn strategies in both groups that would improve reading and writing; to start a classroom library that would be actively used by the ninth-grade students."
"The preliminary results are in: the Ohio Graduation Test scores have improved, and the classroom library has over 1,000 books that students from all over the school borrow," Morelli added. "Westminster students have made many comments about the program, but one comment that is made every semester is 'I never knew teaching could be this hard.'"
Faculty Forum was established in 1990 by Dr. Barbara Faires, Westminster professor of mathematics, during her term as Dean of the College and Vice President for Academic Affairs. Faculty members from all disciplines volunteer to present lectures on their current research, artistic productions, and/or scholarship of teaching and learning. Each forum presents new ideas with innovative lecture techniques.
Morelli, who has been with Westminster since 2002, earned an undergraduate degree from Youngstown State University, a master's from Valparaiso University, and Ed.D. from the University of Pittsburgh.
Contact Morelli at (724) 946-6035 or e-mail morellme@westminster.edu for additional information.
