Two Schools And A Shared Experience

By Laurie Borst

On the morning of May 29, two classes of Reed’s sixth graders played host to two classes of sixth grade students from New Britain’s Roosevelt Middle School in the Media Center at Reed Intermediate School. Since the beginning of April, the two groups have been pen pals, reading a book with a multicultural theme and sharing their thoughts on the book.

Media Specialist Virginia Snowden and New Britain English teacher Saundra Silva were enthusiastic about the interaction between the two groups of students.

“There letters showed good thought and open communication,” Ms Snowden said. “The students have been writing back and forth for several months as they read the book.”

The morning was planned with activities to help the students get to know each other, e.g., Get To Know Your Buddy Bingo and Bud, Not Buddy Jeopardy about the book they read, followed by a guest speaker and lunch. Things got off to a bit of a slow start when the New Britain students got stuck in a traffic jam on I-84.

The students had read the book, Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis. The Newbery Award-winning book tells the story of an orphaned African American boy in Depression-era Michigan who went searching for his roots.

“It’s a good book to share,” said Ms Snowden. “It has humor and tells about a different time and place and ethnicity.”

“Bringing the students together and doing it around a book makes it more concrete,” Ms Silva explained. “We like the idea of tying the pen pal idea to literature. We’d like to expand into more multicultural literature.”

Part of the lesson offered relates to choices, life choices that students face. To bring that notion to life, Ms Snowden invited her friend Dennis Watlington as a guest speaker. Mr Watlington, the author of Chasing America, shared his experiences as an African American youth in Harlem.

His tale of gangs, drugs, and incarceration held the students mesmerized. He spoke of the moment when a policeman told him to leave the scene of a crime; that was the turning point in his life. He earned a scholarship to the Hotchkiss School, later studying at New York University.

Today, Mr Watlington is a filmmaker, author, and screenwriter. He speaks openly of his experiences as a black man in America.

Students’ comments on the reading and correspondence were positive. They enjoyed sharing with each other about themselves, their schools, and communities. They learned there were a lot of similarities between the groups, but no real surprises. The students also felt Mr Watlington gave them a clear picture of what had happened to him.

Other comments from students included “how cool it was to meet new people,” “it was an important coming together of the schools,” and “this school looks better than ours.”

Ms Snowden had organized interschool events at other schools in which she has worked. This was the first year she had organized such an event at Reed School. She and Ms Silva both felt they would like to start earlier next year and meet once at Reed and once in New Britain.

“Get kids to see bigger picture, outside of their own neighborhood,” Ms Snowden added.