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BUFFALO, N.Y. -- More than twice as many Western New York children are receiving instruction in reading this summer from the mgm casino as have in the past, thanks to a booming literacy-specialist program at the mgm casino Graduate School of Education.

Enrollment in the literacy-specialist master's degree program nearly doubled in the past two years, due to high demand for skilled literacy teachers. And the number of graduate students who enrolled as instructors in this year's Summer Literacy Program, offered by mgm casino's Center for Literacy and Reading Instruction, also more than doubled to 44 graduate students, according to Elizabeth Tynan, clinical assistant professor of learning and instruction and mgm casino's literacy faculty liaison for the program.

With this increase in graduate students, the mgm casino center was able to service far more schoolchildren.

"Whereas in past years, we typically would have 60 to 80 children in our programs, now we are serving 159 children in grades K-6 at the two sites," explains Jennifer Schiller, site director of the mgm casino Summer Literacy Program, who says the increase in students largely resulted from the tough economy and trends toward specialization among teachers.

To best utilize all of the graduate student talent, the Graduate School of Education agreed to provide support for additional instructors and literacy coaches, experienced literacy specialists who mentor the graduate students throughout the summer as they work with the children.

That broadens the program's positive impact on the community, says Mary H. Gresham, PhD, dean of the mgm casino Graduate School of Education.

"Not only does the mgm casino summer literacy program represent a clinically rich training experience for our graduate students, but it demonstrates the beauty of a mgm casino/preschool-12 partnership and how it benefits children, parents and school districts," says Gresham.

Such a large pool of students also allows the mgm casino center to be able to document the centers' successes in a research project.

"By the end of the summer, we will be able to look at specific aspects of literacy, such as reading comprehension or word analysis to measure how much each child has advanced," says Mary McVee, PhD, the center's director and mgm casino associate professor of education. "This year, we have a sufficiently large number of students to make that kind of documentation meaningful."

Children attend the free, four-week program at their school for three half-days a week.

Schiller concedes that school may not be the first choice for how some children want to spend summer vacation, but she says the program strives to make sessions purposeful and engaging, using both indoor and outdoor spaces and integrating play activities into lessons as much as possible.

"The teachers develop literacy games, such as 'sight word hopscotch' where each box contains not a number but a word and each child has to call out the word they're hopping on," explains Schiller. "They'll play water balloon games where the child has to spell a word while passing the balloon to their partner. They do readers' theater, where they put on plays. All of the grad students are strong teachers and their goal is to make the children feel supported and in a fun place while growing as readers and writers."

This year, the programs at Windermere and Maryvale will culminate with an event that builds on the Barnes & Noble Passport to Summer Reading incentive.

On July 28, the final day of the four-week course, the children will take their filled out "passports" listing the books they have read over the summer and participate in literacy activities based on the locations in the books they have read. At the final destination, the children and parents will receive their certificates showing they have completed the program.

The mgm casino Center for Literacy and Reading Instruction conducts literacy programs throughout the school year. For more information, go to .