News Releases 2010

Ashley McRuiz, left and Susie Rohner, right

LeTourneau University presented its annual Bracken Reading Award to two area teachers on Tuesday, May 11. The Bracken Reading Award, also called the Dorothy Kendall Bracken grant, is a grant given as part of the East Texas TAIR Conference (Texas Association for the Improvement of Reading). The TAIR Conference is an annual event hosted by the state organization and LETU Department of Teacher Education.

This award is given to a teacher who proposes a classroom literacy project for the year. The recipients of this award are to present their work as a poster or breakout session at the 2011 East Texas Winter Reading TAIR Conference as well as write a summary for the electronic newsletter for TAIR. Judging will be based on the following: impact upon teachers, students or community, the number of students, teachers or families impacted by the project and the significance of outcomes.

The recipients of the award this year are Ashley McRuiz and Susie Rohner. McRuiz is the librarian at Ware Elementary School. Her project is called “Biography Update” and the funds from the grant will be used to update the biography section of the library.

McRuiz says, “An updated biography collection will be especially helpful to the fourth and fifth grades students.”

Rohner is the librarian at Bramlette Elementary School. Her project is called “Teaching Fiction vs. Nonfiction” and the funds from the grant will be used to purchase a series of 24 books, both fact and fiction. Rohner will use these books to teach students the differences and values of both genres.

“Both teachers had well-written grants,” says Kathy Stephens, Chair of LETU’s Department of Teacher Education. “We were looking for teachers who were actually promoting reading in the lives of the children they taught. Both of these recipients were doing this admirably.”