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|Project Title: ||Children's Storybook Project|
|School Year: ||2007|
|School - District:||Sharon High - Sharon|
|Contact Name:||Ellen Bender|
|Contact Phone:||(781) 784-3911|
|Content-Area(s):||English Language Arts|
|Community Need:||Education, Human Needs|
|Brief Description of SL Project: |
Freshman/First Grade Children’s Storybook Project – In this initiative, a freshman English class pairs up with a first grade class and comes to visit. Students get to know one another, have lunch together, and the 9th graders interview the 1st graders to get information (favorites, likes/dislikes, family members) so that they can then create a children’s story incorporating elements of the first grader. Often during the initial visit, the first graders read to the 9th graders, either a book they have written or choose a book to share together. When the book is “published”, the first graders go to the High School, meet again with their partner, hear the story and have refreshments. They will receive a copy of the book to bring home. According to Suzanne Rubens in her article, “Words Made Public/Voices Made Powerful”, writing becomes more authentic and accurate when….”there is suddenly a real person for whom to write.” Students of all abilities find the experience challenging and rewarding. 400 hundred students participate in this project.
|The Community Need the Project is Meeting:|
9th grade students were addressing the need for 1st graders to learn to enjoy reading.
|Service Component: |
9th grades students wrote books for 1st grade students. The stories included some of the 1st grade student’s interests. The initial meeting and interview lasted 1 ½ hours. 9th grade students spent 15 hours writing and illustrating their book and met with the 1st grade students for 1 hour to give them their books, share refreshments, etc. 11 classes of 1st grade students, ~200 students. each received a book written for them This impacted 1st graders in a very positive way in terms of encouraging them to learn and to enjoy reading.
|Connections with Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks: |
Connected to Frameworks, Standards-
Students will write with a clear focus, coherent organization, and sufficient detail.
Students will write for different audiences and purposes.
Students will demonstrate improvement in organization, content, paragraph development, level of detail, style, tone, and word choice (diction) in their compositions after revising them
Students will use knowledge of standard English conventions in their writing, revising, and editing
Students will gather information from a variety of sources, analyze and evaluate the quality of the information they obtain, and use it to answer their own questions.
Students will develop and use appropriate rhetorical, logical, and stylistic criteria for assessing final versions of their compositions or research projects before presenting them to varied audiences.
High School student’s books were assessed on:
•well-designed front and back cover
•a dedication page
•portrayal of one of the 6 archetypes studied
• the use of constructs. a method of teaching grammar developed by a Sharon High teacher
•incorporation of elements of 1st grader interviewed
•interest of story, vivid details
•careful proofreading for mechanics and usage
|How Youth Voice Helps Shape Project:|
9th grade students conducted interviews of 1st grade students and created children’s storybooks specifically for each student.
|Student Reflection Component: |
Students conducted written and oral reflection activities and responded very positively.
|Community Partners Involved: |
The project initiated as collaboration between a 9th and 1st grade teacher. Since then it has expanded to 11 9th grade and 11 1st grade classrooms. Each teacher participated because he or she chose to. Pairs of 1st and 9th grade teachers worked together to determine how to pair each 9th and 1st grader. The partners met at the beginning and end of the project.
|Demonstration/Celebration of Students' Work: |
The project culminates with going to the high school to meet their 9th grade partner, hear the story and have refreshments. Each 1st grade student gets a copy of the book to bring home. An article was in the Sharon Advocate.
|Evaluation of Project’s Impact:|
9th grade students experience the impact of the 1st grade student’s receiving the book. The project’s impact could also be measured by asking the 1st graders about their interest in/desire to read before and after they work with the 9th grade students.
|Challenges/Solutions Identified by District:|
Funding the project was a significant challenge. We were able to solve this by soliciting funds from PTO’s for transportation and from the 9th grade students for copying, transportation and refreshments.
* NOTE: This project summary was written by the district/community. Any text in italics was added or modified by the Department (ESE). Most of these projects were supported with Learn & Serve America funds distributed through the ESE.