The University of Florida Literacy Initiative

The University of Florida Literacy Initiative (UFLI–pronounced “you fly”) is an ongoing effort by UF faculty and students to improve literacy outcomes for students who struggle to learn to read and write.  UFLI began in 1998 as a tutoring model for struggling beginning readers, but it now encompasses a variety of literacy projects, including tutoring for students from kindergarten through high school, assistance to schools, and teacher education and professional development.

Led by Dr. Holly Lane, associate professor of special education, UFLI is built on the expertise and hard work of many faculty and students in the College of Education, including faculty at P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School. Explore the site to learn more about our projects.

A book is made from a tree. It is an assemblage of flat, flexible parts (still called “leaves”) imprinted with dark pigmented squiggles. One glance at it and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, the author is speaking, clearly and silently, inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people, citizens of distant epochs, who never knew one another. Books break the shackles of time ― proof that humans can work magic.

Carl Sagan