Future teachers in assistant professor Colin Dalton's Foundations of Literacy class recently participated in a literacy development activity at the Heritage Society at Sam Houston Park, a museum complex in downtown Houston that features ten historic houses dating back to the 1800s.

After reading Mildred D. Taylor's Newberry Medal-winning historical fiction novel "Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry," the students visited the museum to view examples of dwellings similar to those of the characters' houses in the novel set in 1930s segregated Mississippi.

Dalton's students also performed a readers' theater script based on a pivotal point in the novel that takes place in a mercantile store. The pre-service teachers will use this literacy development strategy to develop reading fluency and comprehension with their future students.

After visiting a plantation house and a rustic cabin and performing the readers' theater script in a replica of an historic general store, the UHD students were encouraged by the museum's education outreach coordinator to return to the museum with their future students.