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Written by Codell Rodriguez, The Southern Friday, 26 June 2009 10:44

News - WSIU Public Broadcasting

CARTERVILLE - Children at the John A. Logan College Preschool have been learning from the SuperWHY Reading Camp and on Friday, they got to meet the titular hero himself.

The WSIU show uses the superhero character and his friends to teach children about reading. Beth Spezia, outreach coordinator for WSIU, said the show uses the superhero concept and fairy tales to convey different skills to the viewers, including word power, alphabet power and spelling power. This was the end of the second year of the program.

Nearly 20 children attended the camp and demonstrated their reading skills, sang and had their picture taken with SuperWHY. Cheryl Lee, lead teacher at the camp, said since implementing the program, the children's literacy skills have improved quite a bit. She said getting to meet the superhero was their ultimate reward.

"They have been excited throughout the week knowing they were having a special guest," Lee said.

Lee said an example of their improvement can be seen in a lesson about opposites. She said when the children started, only one or two could tell what opposites were and by the end, they were aces on the subject.

She said the SuperWHY character is the next Big Bird for the preschool crowd and the layout of the program makes learning fun for the children.

"All the children have really enjoyed it," Lee said.

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Source, The Southern, http://www.thesouthern.com/articles/2009/06/27/local/29120496.txt