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Literacy project involves students, community |
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Thursday, 13 September 2007 |
by JILLIAN SWORDS
Intern News Reporter
At first listen, a seven-year-old girl talking about her dead cat might not seem like the sort of thing that would bring a community together.
However, the Blue Ridge Family Literacy Project, formerly known as the Appalachian Storytelling Project, recognizes the power of personal history and is using it as a tool to do so.
Housed in the Reich College of Education, the program is now embarking upon its third year.
Project Coordinator Dr. William S. Peacock said the principal of Mabel
Elementary School approached himself, Dr. Ann Marie Clark, and A. Matt
Roberts for a project that would cater to “at-risk” families.
“I hesitate to use that term, ‘at risk’,” Peacock said. “I mean it with
regards to their lack of positive identification with the school
program...which usually leads to a negative impact on the young
learner.”
“Our primary goal is to give families in the community an opportunity
to actively become involved in celebrating their cultures and the
vehicle they use in that regard is the family history story,” Peacock
said. “We’re careful to keep it a strictly informal activity…the last
thing we want to do is intimidate them with a formal learning
experience.”
Once a week, families and their young students meet on-site with college students, dubbed “uPartners” by the program.
After a communal supper, the uPartners help the families compose any of their family stories they want to share.
“You use what these folks own. They are indeed the keepers of the keys
of their family history and that works beautifully,” Peacock said.
“They don’t have to worry about embracing some new curricular textbook
or whatever. They’re bringing the curriculum with them.”
Sometimes families are asked to bring in an “artifact” that is
important to their family history. This definitive subject matter is an
easy way to get the stories rolling.
Curriculum and instruction professor Dr. Ann Marie Clark said the program teaches parents how to work with their children.
“They might now be aware of how to get the kids to write,” Clark said.
“[The program] puts a positive spin on something that is sometimes very
difficult—to engage children in writing stories. Kids tend to balk at
the idea of sitting down and writing a story from scratch.”
Clark said the literacy project’s risk-free environment also helps kids with reading comprehension.
“Because the stories come with them, the comprehension comes built in,” Clark said.
At the end of each semester-long program, each site holds a celebration
during which the young students and their families read their favorite
stories to everyone. Compilations of everyone’s stories are printed and
given to all who participated.
“This gives them a lot of pride in what they write,” Clark said.
In addition to the program’s other goals, the project works to provide
practical application for its uPartners, who are usually education
majors.
Clark said that working as a uPartner counts towards students’ service learning hours for her Learner Diversity class.
According to one testimonial on the College of Education Web site, one
student said the experience forced the uPartners to step outside of
their comfort zones.
“I learned to accept the diversity of not only just different races and
religions, but people who are different than me,” they said. “I think
it is important to try to step into many people’s shoes and learn how
different people lead different lives.”
This semester is the start of the program’s first involvement in the Hispanic community in Boone, hosted at Watauga High School.
Beginning Sept. 17, the storytelling project is also beginning an
international chapter, working with families in the community from
Korea, China, Pakistan, India, and Brazil.
Those interested in working with either program may contact Dr. Peacock at
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