Student publishing is a powerful
strategy for involving students in school-to-work learning
experiences. "There is something that clicks," says Kay Baier,
7th grade Spanish teacher at Churchville-Chili Middle School, "when
you tell kids they can be involved in publishing a book. They have a mission
and a purpose for their work."
"The image of a real book with a real
audience is exciting to kids,"
says Joanne Filotas, a Spanish and French teacher at the Cosgrove Middle
School in Spencerport, who also participated. "I knew this would be
a lot of work, but I was very interested in exploring ways to connect
school-to-work skills with the curriculum."
In the book's introduction, Ms. Baier writes,
"The Spanish activity book project succeeded
in bringing real life work experience to my seventh grade students.
I challenged them to create activities in Spanish that would be fun
rather than boring like the homework I give." Forty five of her
students accepted the challenge and met after school once a week for two
months.
The finished product, which we are making
available through The Monroe School/Business Partnership, was a
collaboration between Hilton, Churchville-Chili and the Rochester City
School districts. Book production took place at Benjamin Franklin High
School, where Franklin students helped the middle school students with
design and printing. |