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| Project Title: | Multicultural Library |
| School Year: | 2006 |
| School - District: | Oak Hill Middle - Newton |
| Contact Name: | Paul Lyons |
| Contact Email: | Paul_Lyons@newton.mec.edu |
| Contact Phone: | |
| Content-Area(s): | English Language Arts, History & Social Sciences |
| Grades: | 6 |
| Community Need: | Education, Diversity |
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Brief Description of SL Project:
We established a multicultural library of children’s books for the Rosa Parks Day Care Center in Boston. This Center serves children from a variety of ethnic backgrounds including Cape Verdean, Vietnamese, Spanish, African American and Puerto Rican. This Day Care Center did not have many books that reflected the ethnicities of the children they serve. The students learned, through their own English classes, the importance of the system wide goal of “Respect for Human Differences” and what to look for in a book that is reflective of all children, particularly those of a multicultural background. They used these skills to select picture books that are multicultural. The students helped package these books and delivered them to the Day Care Center where they read aloud the books to the children. |
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The Community Need the Project is Meeting:
The Rosa Parks Day Care Center did not have many books that reflected the ethnicities of the children they serve. By fundraising, in addition to the Grant, our students were able to purchase over 75 picture books that reflected the ethnicities of the children at the Center. |
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Service Component:
Students spent approximately 5-10 hours planning this project and approximately 3-5 hours performing the service component. The Center serves approximately 60 children. |
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Connections with Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks:
This project addressed the following curricular goals:
a.) Respect for Human Differences - Students will live out the system-wide core value of “Respect for Human Differences” by demonstrating anti-racist/anti-bias behaviors.
b.) Students will analyze curriculum for bias and discrimination
c.) Students will work with people of different backgrounds and tell how the experience affected them
d.) Students will incorporate different perspectives when constructing knowledge and making decisions
e.) Students will compare and contrast similar narratives from different cultures and geographic regions
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How Youth Voice Helps Shape Project:
Youth voice was successfully incorporated by asking students to choose multicultural books to present to the day care center. Students were also able to read their book and probably share with students at the center why they chose the book they did and what it meant for a book to celebrate diversity and multiculturalism. |
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Student Reflection Component:
When we returned from the Day Care Center the students wrote about their experience. Most students noted that they felt good about helping others and that it was meaningful to them being able to actually go to the Center and see the children that were receiving the books. |
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Community Partners Involved:
The Rosa Parks Day Care Center, Boston, MA. |
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Demonstration/Celebration of Students' Work:
When we returned from the Center the Team celebrated with a pizza party and reflective conversation about the experience, from the beginning stages to the delivery of the books. |
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Evaluation of Project's Impact:
A great way to evaluate this project would be by asking the students to write a summary of a book they chose to give to the Rosa Parks Day Care Center so their summaries may be compiled into a catalogue resource for teachers and students looking for books that serve diverse background. This catalogue could then be placed in the school’s library for people to reference. |
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Challenges/Solutions Identified by District:
We were told that we would be funded $300 if we were able to fundraise an additional $300. The students decided to design and sell t-shirts that incorporated Oak Hill's theme of "Find Out How Good You Can Be" and Rosa Park's famous quote, "Everyone should live their life as a model for others". We sold 200 t-shirts which raised an additional $450, that was added to the $300. |
* 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. |
