Athens, Ga. (May 31, 2007) – School is out and summer fun has begun, but elementary educators still have some genuine concerns. Summer learning loss, which can be the loss of as much as two months of grade level equivalency during the summer months, can be a real problem for elementary students, especially those from low-income families.A new program developed by Grady College’s Alison Alexander, in conjunction with the Clarke County School District (CCSD), Athens-Clarke County Library and the University of Georgia’s Department of Education, will give Clarke County students a chance to overcome learning loss odds.

Catch Up & Keep Up, an instructional video program, will premiere on local cable Channel 16 on Monday, June 4 at 9 a.m. The half-hour episodes will re-air at 11 a.m., 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. each day and will run daily throughout the summer.

Rising third graders received packets during the last week of school with a letter about the program, a magnet to remind them to watch Channel 16 this summer and a packet of supplementary materials and activities to help them retain what they learn from the videos.

“We chose this age group because third grade is really crucial; there is a lot of new material that children are exposed to,” said Alexander, professor of telecommunications and senior associate dean of academic affairs at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.

The video series features teachers from Fowler Drive, Gaines and Whit Davis Elementary Schools re-teaching the lessons from the previous school year in a classroom setting.
Each program features math and reading lessons, story time with Jackie Elsner from the Athens-Clarke County Library and a physical education segment so children and their parents can get up and move.

Elsner, children’s director at the library, said, “The DVD is superb. It’s definitely worth all the effort. And the packets sent home with the children are doing the trick: this weekend I had quite a few children bring parents to the library, telling me they already had their reading logs.”

In addition to the CCSD elementary teachers and Elsner, second grade students from area schools also participated in the videos. The videos were produced by University of Georgia students from the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication and the College of Education.

Students helped with rehearsals, the actual shooting of the videos and with designing the opening and closing credits of the series. They also assisted teachers in creating “the most visually-appealing lessons” possible. “We can’t be Sesame Street, but we didn’t want to be like a dull education program from the 1950s either,” Alexander said.

On Sunday, May 13, the Athens-Clarke County Library hosted the “world premiere” of Catch Up & Keep Up. Alexander, Grady College telecommunications lecturer Steve Smith and Grady students were among those honored as producers, cast and crew of the project.

Catch Up & Keep Up was made possible through a Scholarship of Engagement (SEGUE) grant that Alexander received from UGA’s Office of the Vice President of Public Service and Outreach and support from the CCSD. The UGA grants program was established in 2004 to support outreach projects by faculty members. The program’s primary goals are to address expressed community needs, create collaborations across disciplines and university units, and encourage development of service-learning projects for UGA students.

“I’ve had this idea for a long time, but I didn’t have the context to make it happen,” Alexander said. Thanks to the SEGUE grant she was able begin a program that has the potential to better the future of Athens-Clarke community youth.

##

This article was posted on Wednesday, May 30th, 2007 at 10:10 am and is filed under Program News, Grants.