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Teacher
and Youth
Reflections From Joyce Burtch (photo of Joyce, 1996) |
| Through Our Eyes - This
project was done only with my advanced English class and was very difficult
but very rewarding. Group involvement in writing was a first for them as
well as for myself. We read the other essays that came in, then planned how
we would go about writing ours. We discussed the uses of figurative language
and adjectives that involved the senses. When we went to observe our site,
the students were much more attuned to what their senses were perceiving
and it showed in their notes. The actual process of writing became very involved.
Students debated over every choice of word. Often, it came down to voting
which phrasing everyone liked the most. This took a great deal of cooperative
work and I wouldn't try it with a group that was this large (23) or on the
level these students were. All of us benefited from the project though and
the story is now on our Web Site. I know they'll be very excited to see it
in the actual magazine that I just got this afternoon. I think the students
participation in this project will be a source of pride for all of them for
quite some time.
From Lynne Sueka: This year, my students and I participated in the "Through Our Eyes" project, and it worked in very well with our curriculum. Since project coordinator, Regina Royer, had notified us early in the year about the project guidelines, it was easy to build into the writing and social studies curriculum the preparation for the final piece of writing. In Language Arts, we studied good description, figurative comparisons, pre-writing techniques. We worked on poems about our "special places" early in the year. In social studies, we learned about communities and their environments and the interrelationships of people and place. Then, because participating schools were sending their contributions to the list, we studied the other pieces of writing as examples of the essay that we would need to submit :-) The kids were very proud of the piece they finally constructed and have retained the writing skills they've learned and applied them to other pieces :-) One of the main elements that made this a successful project, I feel, was the consistent communication from Regina--she started with an overview and some hints about how to structure the writing process. She followed up every few weeks or so with updates on the participating schools, which gave us a good feel for the breadth of coverage. And she gently reminded us when the publication deadline drew closer :-) Continue | Back to the Practical tips page
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