'When Sara Smiles' program enhances K-2 literacy efforts, supports education students
A collaborative initiative between the East Carolina University College of Education and the local community offers financial assistance to education majors and literacy instructional support for local schools.
The “When Sara Smiles” program, named after the esteemed former ECU professor Dr. Sara B. McCraw, serves as a tribute to her legacy by offering financial aid to students via scholarships and valuable opportunities to enhance their literacy instructional methodologies and practical experiences. These efforts translate into approximately 60 hours of direct literacy instruction for K-2 students and is supervised by faculty members specializing in literacy education and collaborating classroom teachers.
Dr. Sara B. McCraw was passionate about teaching reading and writing and had built her career around it — first as an elementary classroom teacher before pursuing her doctorate at the University of Delaware and becoming an assistant professor at ECU. She was still teaching her students at ECU two weeks before she lost her long battle with ovarian cancer in November 2012.
Throughout her educational journey, McCraw saw the value in collaborative programs and the value of high-quality read-alouds for young students. However, during her dissertation research, there wasn’t really any literature around writing in the field of interactive read-alouds, which caused her to focus her research in the writing area.
After McCraw’s death, James Gardner, her partner of 17 years, and her sister, Lee McCraw-Leavitt, established a nonprofit fund to help continue the word McCraw believed in. The Sara B. McCraw Memorial Reading Fund provides resources to support working teachers and education students on how to work with underserved students through reading and writing programs with a secondary goal of assisting in creating and providing targeted programs at universities an elementary schools where the need to help young readers and writers exists. This serves as the basis of the “When Sara Smiles” scholarship awarded through the ECU College of Education.
This program’s reach has extended to multiple schools in Pitt County, as well as the ECU Community School. The following testimonials are from this year’s recipients of the When Sara Smiles scholarship, who are actively engaged in delivering reading instruction at the Community School.
Meghan Pratt
As a young kid, I found my passion for reading because of my 1st grade teacher. I learned how to love reading from her influence. When I decided my major, I knew I wanted to be a teacher, but more specifically, I wanted to teach kids how to love reading. I wanted to teach kids how to get lost in a good book, how to resonate with characters, how to infer, and even inspire them to write their own stories. Throughout my semester at the ECU Community school, I have made connections, learned new things, and loved every minute. I worked with all grades, crafting new ideas, and inspiring young minds. Working closely with the reading specialist, Ms. Lebarre, I feel in love with literature all over again. My experience has truly been rewarding in every aspect. The young kids whom I get to work with, have forever made an impact on the teacher and person I am. I have been able to lead several small groups, complete stations, and sight word practice with a wide range of readers. Ms. Lebarre gives me several opportunities to be as hands-on in the classroom as possible. I cannot wait to continue this next semester, and I am forever thankful for the opportunity I was given.
Kaitlin Cook
I decided that I wanted to become an elementary teacher when I was just a kid myself. My mom was my biggest inspiration, as she is a teacher assistant. I saw the passion she had for her job, and how much of an impact she was making in students’ lives. My time spent volunteering thus far at the community school has made me want to become a teacher even more. Working with the students, from helping them in small group literacy activities to listening to them read has brought so much joy to my heart.
The students I am working with are “COVID kids,” meaning they were out of school for some of their most important school years. Therefore, they’re not on the grade-level they need to be for reading. I had a student tell me (something like), “I used to be the best reader in my class and now I’m not. I just can’t do it. I’ve lost my smartness.” This broke my heart. I never want any student to feel like they’re incapable. I was able to tell the student (something like) that if you set your mind to it, and apply yourself, you can do it. I also told the student that smartness isn’t something you can lose. I hope to be able to teach more students to believe in themselves, just as I (hopefully) was able to do with this student. This is the reason I want to be a teacher; so that I can help students to believe in their abilities.
Marissa Toledo
I have always been a reader. In my family, it was common for us to go to the library every week to get new books. I spent my childhood listening to my mother read me stories and staying up to finish just one more chapter in the book I had started. Having grown up with reading as something enjoyable, I always wanted to encourage others to enjoy reading. To use it as a tool to learn more or to visit a new world in their imagination. That spark I felt for education came from working with children to answer the question ‘why?’. My goal as a teacher is to nurture that curiosity in children, to ensure they enjoy learning. We need to develop strong foundational skills for them to use literacy to find their answers. While working with Ms. LeBarre at the ECU Community School, I have seen how truly important these skills are, how the different aspects of literacy build on each other, and the best methods for introducing them. This experience has been good for understanding how literacy theory is implemented in the classroom. This opportunity has also greatly assisted in overcoming my struggle with literacy instruction and made me feel more confident in myself. By working with small groups, I was able to see how to best help students at different levels of literacy. I am looking forward to making the most of this opportunity to help students and better my own literacy instruction.
