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Weaving the Web of Community: Project Report

Through the creation of the Students at the Center (SAC) program at McDonogh 35 and Frederick Douglass, numerous educational improvements in the areas of student writing, student-community interactions, and staff development have occurred. The following list represents some of those accomplishments.

Direct Instruction to Students

Creation of 12 sections of an elective writing course at the two schools: These courses -- limited in enrollment to 15 students per class -- allow students to receive the individualized and small group instruction they need to excel in writing, tutor other students effectively in writing and critical reading, and develop writing projects in collaboration with community groups.

Development of effective, prize-winning student writers: SAC students from both schools have won numerous writing awards, especially at McDonogh 35 where the program has been in place for two years. Awards have included 1st place in contests sponsored by Tulane Law School, U. S. Postal Service, African American History Alliance of Louisiana, SUNO Library, WWL Television, the Urban League, and McDonald's. McDonogh 35 SAC students won 9 of 12 places in four separate policy paper contests sponsored by the Institute of Women and Ethnic Studies, including 3 of 4 1st place awards, which carry a prize of $600 and a trip to New York to participate in the Adolescent Media Advocacy Conference. SAC students at Frederick Douglass, the school which last year was named one of the lowest achieving schools in our city, have won 1st and 3rd places in two separate city-wide poetry contests and 2nd place in a city-wide essay contest. One student, who has failed numerous courses and been on disciplinary probation, earned the opportunity to represent the local NAACP in the national academic olympics for youth at the July 1999 NAACP convention. Douglass SAC student writing has appeared in two New Orleans publications, and two students have presented their writing to city-wide professional audiences.

Participation of over 200 students per week in one-on-one and small group instruction in writing from SAC student mentors at the two schools. Regular course teachers at the two schools can send up to fifteen students per class period to receive tutoring from SAC students in course-related writing assignments.

Staff Development

Seven SAC Course Teachers from the two schools have participated in six half-day workshops and 10 monthly follow-up meetings per year. This training is especially effective because it happens with full support of reduced class sizes, frequent follow-up meetings, and collaborative teaching practices from fellow SAC teachers.

Each SAC Course Teacher receives monthly (at least) visits from and conferences with SAC Project Director. The director himself is teaching the same elective SAC course as the teachers he visits. These conferences allow teachers to develop more effective teaching strategies based on shared experience and observation.

Six SAC Consulting Teachers in the two schools participate in three half-day workshops, 10 monthly meetings, and extensive consultations with SAC Course Teachers and Students on ways to use writing to teach course content. In these sessions, fellow teachers discuss ways to incorporate writing and community involvement into all academic courses. These consulting teachers also help SAC course teachers improve the services SAC students provide to visiting teachers and their classes.

Outreach to Other Educational Institutions

Three schools in Newark, N. J,. will have full-day SAC programs next year: SAC is becoming a national model. Pascagoula High School has introduced a writing program based on the SAC model, and a school in Arizona has written for funding to begin a program.

SAC students and teachers are featured in national education conferences and publications: In 1998, SAC was the featured program (with 3 SAC teachers and 3 students attending) at a national conference on service learning at Clemson University. This year educators from five states and a representative from the Woodrow Wilson National Foundation came to New Orleans to observe the SAC program. SAC student Ebony Carriere and teacher Jim Randels have co-authored a chapter for a book on students writing for the community.

Writing Collaborations with Middle and Elementary School Students: SAC students correspond at least twice a month with 90 students at Marshall Middle School and 30 at Sherwood Forest Elementary School. The focus of the middle school correspondence is on preparing students to be effective high school students.

SAC sponsors a teen newspaper, Our Voice, distributed to all middle and secondary New Orleans Public Schools. The Crescent City Peace Alliance and the Institute of Women and Ethnic Studies co-sponsor this newspaper by and for teens.

SAC students have planned and conducted 5 forums for teens from 8 high schools. These forums, limited in size, are designed to develop solutions and action plans rather than simply discuss problems for issues such as parental relationships and teen violence and sexuality.

The SAC multiple-school forums inspired a city-wide, monthly talk show for teens involving students and teachers from 16 area schools and funded by the State Health Department.

Collaborations with Community Organizations

SAC students are involved in numerous community action projects. SAC publications, including seven chapbooks of student writing, document many of these collaborations, which include:

• writing and designing a newsletter for the N. Claiborne/St. Bernard Ave. Economic Development District

• planning with the Frederick Douglass Parent Organization and the Bywater Residents Association a neighborhood festival with strong emphasis on demonstrations of student academic performance

• performing a student-written play to commemorate the 1811 Slave Revolt in local churches and schools -- most recently at a Baptist church in the neighborhood surrounding McDonogh 35. This project is in collaboration with the African American History Alliance of Louisiana.

• participating in an internship in archaeology, anthropology, and history in collaboration with the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Africana Studies Department of the New Orleans Public Schools

• conducting Saturday morning writing workshops with parolees in the Jefferson Parish Juvenile Justice system in collaboration with a social worker

• corresponding with 4^th - 6^th grade residents of the Iberville and St. Bernard housing developments in collaboration with Saving Kids Unlimited, a local non-profit group

• hosting student-led, open-to-the-public book discussions at least twice a month at Community Book Center

• writing and producing public service announcements that have been broadcast on WWOZ radio and its website

• posting student writing on the web site of Write to Change, a national literacy development organization

• co-producing with UNO's Anthropology Department a public lecture and discussion series in the school's neighborhood on oral histories about historically black business districts -- such as N. Claiborne Ave. and Oretha Castle Haley

• publishing a journal of original writing for and by young women.