Community Outreach Project Proposal
For my CRTW 550 community service project, I have joined 826Michigan’s in-school residency program at Roberto Clemente Student Development Center in Ypsilanti. I work on Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. with students in Terry Carpenter’s U.S. History classes who are developing a fictionalized textbook that will be published at the end of the school year by 826Michigan.
Last year, 826Michigan volunteers helped students from Huron High School published a book of essays. Students in two of Mr. Carpenter’s classes are writing short narrative pieces from assignments over the school year. He has given them wide creative berth to produce essays, songs and other types of narrative that address World Wars I and II, the Harlem Renaissance, slavery reparation, political protests and an imaginative look at the year 2020.
I am one of four 826Michigan volunteers working on this project. My duties include editing student work and offering solutions and ideas to engage student interest and thinking. I am trying when possible to inspire students to exceed their own expectations, which are quite low.
Roberto Clemente is an alternative school for 8th - 12th graders, who require a smaller, more structured and nurturing environment. Its 80 students are either self-referred or have been referred by their district middle and high schools. Less than 23 percent of the students read at or above state proficiency levels of the Scholastic Reading Inventory Lexile and 82 percent are African-American.
As a group, the 826 volunteers are experimenting through trial and error to engage the students in the project. Exciting them about seeing their work published has proven to be difficult. Our biggest challenge is keeping them focused on what their day’s task. Grading has not proved an effective incentive, either positively or negatively. The instructor gives them nearly free rein to walk around, talk with other students and surf the web on their school-issued laptops. They often leave the room in a state of disrepair and don’t keep track of their own folders of assignments.
We’ve had the most success with dividing and conquering. Each volunteer has four students to track for the hour, engaging them one on one at the beginning of class and following through at the end of class.
None of the volunteers of course want to overstep the instructor’s purview, so we continue to experiment with ways to encourage the students to take ownership of the project. They haven’t quite grasped the abstract notion that they have a chance to have their work published.
Katie Jones is the 826Michigan onsite volunteer coordinator, who is employed by through an AmeriCorps grant.
