The Nu Alpha Gamma Chapter of the Delta Gamma Society International bestowed their annual Literacy Grants for 2024-2025 on two worthy educators in Dallas County.
Jill Folsom, who teaches first grade at the Sugar Creek Elementary in the Waukee Community School District, received a $125 grant to put toward the purchase of nonfiction books written at a level that first-grade students can read.
“First grade is a special year in the life of a reader,” Folsom said in her application to Nu Alpha Gamma. “As teachers, we aim to provide accessible and joyful literacy experiences for our students. Providing them with decodable books they can read to learn from is very helpful for our young readers.”
There are 125 first graders at Sugar Creek Elementary.
Carla Wood, a sixth grade teacher at the Perry Middle School, was the second Nu Alpha Gamma Literacy Grant, and she said she will use her $125 grant to purchase books pertaining to agriculture in order to enhance her curriculum.
Wood said she reads daily to her students and challenges them to compare Iowa to other regions. She also collaborates annually with the Farm Bureau Ag in the Classroom program, which aims to help students understand where their food comes from as well as to raise their own.
“This grant was used to purchase 11 books that spoke to different areas of food production as well as ethnic and educational diversity,” Wood said at the April meeting of the Nu Alpha Gamma Chapter. She said she believes “that the way to get to a kid is through literature.”
The Nu Alpha Gamma is a chapter of the Delta Gamma Society International, a worldwide society of women educators. They have been awarding Literacy Grants since 2009 and to date have given out more than $4,800 to educators in Dallas County in order to improve literacy in their classrooms.
Sue Leslie is the secretary of the Nu Alpha Gamma Chapter.
