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Christopher
Skelton
08
Project
Summary
Frewsburg Central School
TAH Project
“Little
Read”
featuring…
Robert H.
Jackson
by Gail Jarrow
Frewsburg
Central School
Submitted by Christopher S. Skelton, English 7
Teacher
Collaborative Project
Mrs. Lindsey Marzec
Mrs. Robin Trapani
Mrs. Emily Spielman
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General Overview of the Proposed
Project:
Frewsburg Central School is instituting a new
initiative modeled after the recent Big Read in Chauatuqua County.
The FCS Little Read will feature the new publication
Robert H. Jackson by Gail Jarrow. Through community and
parental donations the district will be providing each 7th
and 8th grade student, as well as their teachers, a copy
of the book to create a community of readers. The 7th
and 8th grade English, Social Studies and School Library
Media Specialist will be collaborating to develop a cadre of lessons
and experiences highlighting Frewsburg’s famous native son Robert H.
Jackson.
For a culminating event we would like to host
the author of Robert H. Jackson, Gail Jarrow, in our school.
We feel that Mrs. Jarrow could share her knowledge and insights into
the life of Robert H. Jackson with our students. Mrs. Jarrow also
does the following programming: Researching Nonfiction, Road to
Publishing, Writing Techniques and Creating Fiction.
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Clear Purpose and Objective
The “Little Read” will support the NEA
goal of helping to restore reading to the center of American
culture. As noted by Librarian of Congress Daniel J. Boorstin,
“Ours is a culture of the book. Our democracy is built on books and
reading.” As you are familiar with the work of Robert H. Jackson,
he worked tirelessly throughout his career to support democracy.
This program will enhance and honor his legacy by bringing his life
work into focus for students and highlight his contributions to our
society. The Frewsburg Central School “Little Read” program
will serve as a role model for other communities to engage students
at all levels in reading.
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Stakeholders: grade level, who will
benefit, who will participate in this project
All 7th and 8th grade
students will be participating in this project. We hope to also
have enough copies of the book so every 7th and 8th
grade teacher, in all curricular areas can model reading it with
their students. Studies have shown that children read more when
they see other people reading. By engaging the classroom teachers
in the reading process, they can promote the “Little Read”
initiative in classrooms that wouldn’t have a direct connection to
the topic.
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U.S. History Content Area
The “Little Read” project will cover
the following standards:
NYS Social Studies Standards
Standard 1-History of the
United States and New York
Standard 2- World History
Standard 5- Civics,
Citizenship and Government
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Outline Describing Content
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Each student will receive a copy of
the book Robert H. Jackson by Gail Jarrow
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Each book will have a bookplate in it
with the student’s name and list of the donors
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The 7th and 8th
grade English teachers will develop vocabulary and questions
to correspond to each chapter.
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The students will have the opportunity
to view video clips of Robert H. Jackson.
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Each class will finish the book prior
to the author visit.
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Each student will choose a final
project to demonstrate their knowledge about Robert H.
Jackson. The projects will be an essay, original poetry or
rap song. The best work from each class will have the
opportunity to have lunch with the author.
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Gail Jarrow, author of Robert H.
Jackson, will visit the library as a culminating event.
The author will present four programs and speak at a
luncheon. Students in each of the sessions will have the
opportunity to introduce the author to the audience. They
will be chosen by the classroom teachers.
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The following additional activities
will be done:
1.
Students will create an illustrative timeline to be placed in
the library
2.
The middle school showcase will display promotional material
about the “Little Read” and Robert H. Jackson.
3.
Students will develop questions to ask the author Gail
Jarrow. Students with the best questions will have the opportunity
to film Mrs. Jarrow’s responses to be later used in a podcast.
4.
Students will create a “word wall” with each class creating a
poster with adjectives to describe Justice Jackson.
5.
Students will create a display also to be placed in the
library of “Lessons Learned” from Justice Jackson.
6.
Students will research how Frewsburg appeared at the time of
Jackson’s life and how it appears now. A display of Then and Now
pictures will be created.
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Software to be used, internet
materials, contacts, etc.
Students will use online databases and
approved Internet resources. The Frewsburg Central School MS/HS has
a collection of primary resources on both Robert H. Jackson and the
Frewsburg Central School. The Robert H. Jackson Center and the
Fenton Museum would also be of use for information and primary
resources. In the realm of technology, the district has 15 licenses
for Garage Band and the Microsoft program Photostory 3 is also
accessible on district computers. The completed podcasts will be
posted on the teacher or library webpages.
7. Level of Student Involvement
Students will be involved in all
aspects of this event. They will read the book, meet with the
author and participate in all of the activities created to support
the FCS “Little Read.”
8. Evaluation process
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Essays,/Projects
Rubric
§
Content
§
Grammar/Mechanics
§
Organization
·
Daily Assignment Checks
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Podcast
§
Each student will have a role to be assessed
9. Timeline: how you envision the project
being carried out between start and conclusion
Students will receive their books
approximately May 5th 2008. The students will begin
reading and do the chapter vocabulary and questions between May 5th
and May 14th. The supplementary activities will be
created during the week of May 19th. Gail Jarrow’s
author visit will be held in the Frewsburg Central MS/HS library
from 9:00AM – 1:00 PM on May 22nd. This will include all
members of the 7th and 8th grade. Students
selected with the best projects and or essays will be given the
opportunity to eat lunch with the author. Additionally students
working on the podcast will have time video tape the author’s
response to their questions about the publishing process and her
personal viewpoint of Robert H. Jackson.
10. Comments or Questions:
Can we use the $250.00 towards the purchase of
books or to help pay for the author expenses?
We will submit vocabulary lists, chapter
questions, project outlines etc. as they become developed to
complete the project.
It is our intention to make this a very
special event at Frewsburg Central School for our 7th & 8th
grade students.
Christopher S. Skelton
Frewsburg Central School District
English/Language Arts Grade 7
A reflection on the unit we
created using Jarrow’s Robert H. Jackson enabled me to
discern several important qualities of good, coherent, unit building
and lesson planning—both of which encourage teachers to become
better, more well organized educators, and, furthermore, encourage
students to develop as lifelong learners and inquisitive thinkers.
In working with my colleagues,
Mrs. Robin Trapani, Mrs. Emily Spielman, and Mrs. Lindsay Marzec, I
feel that I learned a number of important things that will stay with
me throughout my teaching career. For one, I have always believed
that a team effort is the best way to tackle any curricular unit. I
think this unit reinforced that notion due to the amount of work we
did, the time it took us, and the results we obtained from the
students. In looking back, I believe that if coherent minds can
come together, anything is possible, and this is something I pass
along to my students as we worked together to read the book, answer
questions, and discuss opinions.
I also found it enlightening to know that
students enjoyed reading about a local boy who changed the course of
politics and history with his law practice both in Jamestown and in
Washington, DC. Students were happy to read about their local
history; they enjoyed the pictures of downtown Frewsburg which
showed how things have changed in the past 100 years. I learned
that you can use a wide array of approaches to teaching the book
without sacrificing any of the content-for we each have our own
style and approach to motivating and encouraging our students.
If this unit were to be repeated, I believe I
would stick with the reading comprehension questions—although some
of the questions are easy, having the students fill them out gives
them a purpose for the reading. I would also make the essay contest
a requirement—it seemed to motivate the kids to know the winners of
the contest would be eating lunch with the author. Finally, I would
try to provide the learning stations we used as a further learning
component that involves cooperative group learning. Students put
forth more effort when relied upon by a group of students who
undoubtedly want to succeed.
As a whole, I would not change anything that
we did as a group. I believe we worked well enough to bring the
unit together. We worked hard to develop rich learning
opportunities for all of our learners. As a result, I believe our
students did enjoy the unit—from the reading to the learning
stations to the presentation with the author.
I think this unit worked well for both the
seventh and the eighth graders. My students, both in class and
during the events we scheduled for the “Little Read”, were in awe of
Robert H. Jackson—the pictures and ideas surrounding Jackson as a
boy in Frewsburg brought it home for them. The students were
excited by the premise of an essay contest and were further excited
by the notion of meeting the author, discussing the book with her,
and learning more about the world during the WWII era. I believe
that students would have enjoyed doing more work with the book, but,
for the sake of time, we did just the right amount to whet their
appetites and keep them motivated to learn throughout the unit.
As mentioned above, working as a team of
educators with a common purpose and goal in mind enabled us to
succeed with our students. I would like to believe that our
instruction was stronger and our students took in more information
than a normal unit. With this in mind, students remained motivated,
their achievement increased, and students and teachers both felt a
sense of accomplishment in regards to the life and work of Robert H.
Jackson.
Christopher Skelton Reflection in Word 07 08
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