Little Red Reading House

Little Red Reading House (LRRH) is a place devoted to a love of reading and early literacy. Working directly with children and families, our mission is to get books into the hands of children, create positive reading experiences for families, and shift the needle on literacy in Calgary. Housed in a beautiful heritage home in Calgary’s Inglewood neighbourhood, LRRH is a magical place designed for children and created to inspire imagination and creativity. As part of the Owerko Centre at the University of Calgary, we are also a community-embedded research site dedicated to being a learning environment for future educators and leaders.

Throughout the year, we host children, families, social agencies, and school field trips for visits to LRRH. Each visit includes unstructured exploration and reading time, a read-aloud story time, and other creative activities. Additionally, we drive a Little Red Reading Van (LRRV), a mobile book nook, to visit schools, summer camps, and other events in the Spring, Summer and Fall months. Each child who visits the house or the van gets to choose a book to keep and take home with them. In 2023, forty thousand books were given to children in Calgary through the house, the van and collaborations with affiliate partners.

Who?

All Bachelor of Education students, recommended to students in the Early Childhood specialization.

What?

Support Little Red Reading House programs, early literacy, and a love of reading in children and families.

When?

Weekend, weekday, and evening opportunities available.

Where?

Little Red Reading House, 922 8 Ave SE, T2G 0M3

What's Involved

Student volunteers will be working alongside an LRRH staff member to host families and children at the Little Red Reading House. Students will be reading out loud to children, helping children figure out what kind of books they like and helping them to find a book to take home with them. Students may also be asked to lead activities with the children or assist with field trips to the house. Field trips are usually for K-3 students.

There are two volunteer opportunities for pre-service teachers at Little Red Reading House:

House Host Volunteer: Working alongside a member of the LRRH staff to host family visits, field trips and social agency visits to the house. Students will also have the opportunity to work at our Book Bank, sorting book donations for different demographics.

Early Talks Program Assistant: Students will work with LRRH Staff to facilitate the Early Talks program with support from the YW Calgary for a cohort of families with children aged 0-3 yrs old. This is a weekly program that runs for 10 weeks and guides families with young children to improve their language development.

Requirements

Pre-service teachers need a current Police Information Check with Vulnerable Sector Screening (issued after May 1 of the current academic year). Students who do not already have a police check should begin this process online with their local Police station as soon as possible as police checks often take 4-6 weeks to process. Please see the Field Experience Police Information Requirement webpage for more information on how to request a PIC-VS.

Examine a variety of approaches to teaching and learning in non-traditional educational settings
Examine how programming fosters inclusion and personal growth
Examine how programs and educators create communities that are conducive to teaching and learning
Examine how teaching and learning take place in other contexts
Gain experience working with youth in a small group setting
Gain experience working with youth in an individual setting
Identify specific opportunities for you to contribute to program communities in a positive, professional manner
Model positive behaviour for children, youth, teachers, and parents

Program Dates:
- Fall: October 2 to mid-December, 2024
- Winter: January 8 to mid-March, 2025

House Host Volunteers

Variable. Weekdays, and some evenings and weekends available. The time commitment is typically 2-3 hours per shift.
Training: One in-person one hour orientation session.

Early Talks Program Assistants

Wednesday, 10:00 – 11:30 am. 10 week program. Each session is 1.5 hours.
Training: 3-hour online self-paced training + 3 hour online live training

In total, pre-service teachers agree to commit to a minimum of 20 hours for their service-learning experience

Fall Semester Timeline

Fall 2024 Applications Open: August 28, 2024
Werklund Information Sessions:
- Cancelled; please email wse.experiential@ucalgary.ca with any questions about the Service-Learning program or to arrange for a meeting.
Fall 2024 Applications Close: September 17, 2024 for smaller programs, larger placement applications are ongoing.
Fall 2024 Placements Start: early October (program dependent)
Fall 2024 Placements End: mid-December (program dependent)

Winter Semester Timeline

Winter 2025 Applications Open: November 15, 2024
Winter 2025 Information Session: November 26, 5:00 pm (Zoom)
Winter 2025 Applications Close: December 1, 2024 (program dependent)
Winter 2025 Placements Start: early January (program dependent)
Winter 2025 Placements End: mid-March (program dependent)

Experiential Learning Check-In & Reflection Opportunities

All participants in Experiential Learning programs are welcome and encouraged to attend at least two of the check-in & reflection sessions below as part of their program. Reflection is an incredibly important part of experiential learning. It encourages students to consider their experience so far and to adjusted as needed as they go forward through the rest of their program, or into the next step of their career.