Service learning is an integral part of the curriculum for Cathy Kappes, who teaches sixth grade language arts at
Summit View Middle School.
Kappes, who has taught in the Kenton County School District in Northern Kentucky for the past 23 years, says it’s a way for students to take what they learn in the classroom and apply it to real-world situations.
Her most recent project allowed students to learn the elements of a short story, while also promoting literacy to preschoolers and kindergarteners.
“I know from my own experience that students who are read to from a very young age are more likely to read later on for pleasure,” Kappes says. “It fosters that literacy idea at a very early age, and it fosters the idea of reading for fun and not because you have to.”
Kappes’ idea to promote literacy started years ago when her class adopted a classroom of first graders with whom they became reading buddies.
“I used my kids who were struggling in reading, and they’d go next door and read easy books to those kids, so it gave them practice and expression,” Kappes says. “And it evolved out of that—not just for those kids who became better readers—but also for the kids over at the elementary school who got to listen to the stories.”
She took that idea and turned it into a
service-learning project.
She says plot, conflict and character development are essential elements to any short story, and that it’s worked well for her in years past to teach students those elements in a simplified language. So her students write short stories for an audience of 4-, 5- and 6-year-olds.
“They still have to have those techniques no matter how simple the story is,” Kappes says. “And the kids get very excited about it because, wow, they’ve become published authors.”
Kappes' students started the project by talking about concepts like audience and purpose, and they discussed the interests of the preschoolers and kindergarteners for whom they were writing in great detail. From trucks and princesses to lost toys and even lollipops who didn’t fit in because they were a different flavor than the others, Kappes’ students understood what would appeal to their readers’ interests.
“A lot of it was about learning to get along because we talked about how we wanted each one to have a message," says Kappes. "What was a child supposed to figure out from reading or listening to this? So that was awesome. They really had good ideas.”
Once the students’ ideas had taken shape, they created a storyboard, then drafted and illustrated their hardbound books, which they then read aloud and gave to younger students this past Valentine’s Day.
“They really did have those smiles from ear to ear," says Kappes. "They were just so proud of their books. And when they got to tell the little kid that he or she got to keep it, they’d take my students by the hand and walk them over to their little cubbies where they put it in their backpacks. I don’t know who was more excited—my kids or the little guys.”
Some of Kappes’ students got so excited about their books that they even wanted to create space on the back covers to serve as “about the author” pages, she says.
“I love doing this kind of stuff with my kids,” Kappes says. “This gives me the opportunity to branch out to something that isn’t quite as structured. They had that interest and really learned something because of it.”
Do Good:
• Contact Summit View Middle School to donate to the
PAWS for a Cause program.
• Contact the school at 859-363-4800 to volunteer.
• Contact the school to donate money or supplies to its Family Resource Center.
By Brittany York
Brittany York is a professor of English composition at the University of Cincinnati and a teacher at the Regional Institute of Torah and Secular Studies. She also edits the For Good section of SoapboxMedia.
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