BRATTLEBORO — Hey look,” said one parent to another while waiting to pick up their children at the end of the school day at Academy School, in West Brattleboro. “The kids did a newspaper.”
I knew I was in the right place. I was at the school to volunteer to both interview the kids, and to teach a writing lesson. Hot off the presses was this school year's first edition of The Red Clover Times.
As I made my way through the halls to the library to meet with the young journalists who created the newspaper, I observed several parents and one teacher deep in thought, reading their school news as I attempted to find the library. I got lost. I asked directions from a bunch of kids waiting to be excused for soccer practice.
“Where do I go to meet the kids who run the school newspaper?” I ask.
“They're meeting in the library,” one boy volunteers, a big smile on his face and genuine excitement in his voice. “We just got their paper,” he adds, “go left here.”
Clearly this newspaper staff has done an admirable job; certainly their work has pleased these sports fans. I wait for the writers in the library. These youngsters have sat at desks and busied their brains all day long at school - and yet, after dismissal at 3:15 p.m., they bound into the library, ready to engage in an hour and a half of their own time to put out The Red Clover Times.
Josh, 9, and Derrick, 10, arrive first, their energy and excitement palpable.
Derrick has a poll piece in the Red Clover Times, giving readers for choices in answer to the age-old question, “How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?”
Josh has recently joined the staff of the newspaper. I ask him why.
“To be honest, I saw the kids in the library last week and they all had their shoes off, and I wondered why. When I found out they were the newspaper group, I asked them if I could join. I think I want to write a poll like Derrick did for the next issue,” he shares.
Soon Meara, 10, arrives, with Archer, 9.
Archer and Meara tell me they both enjoy drawing cartoons. In the first issue, Archer has written an article about the Academy School Garden Program.
Bonnie, 11, and Jasper, 9, arrive next. Jasper “likes using anything electronic” and serves as the paper's photographer. Bonnie “loves to write” and has contributed the longest article in the paper about the chefs in the kitchen at Academy School.
* * *
Eric Pero is the parent who has taken the kids' work, assembled it into a four-page format, and had 440 copies printed for distribution. He owns and operates ESP Media, which publishes the local flyer called The Wanderer.
“It's great working with Academy's Red Clover Times team. They're excited about the paper, interested to learn more about writing and working hard to produce each issue,” he says.
“This kind of work is so important because these kids are going to be the next generation of journalists and writers in this country,” Pero adds. “The earlier we can get them started, the more successful they can become.”
Last to the table is Eileen Parks, Academy's librarian and the official advisor of the group. Why is she shepherding these students into newspaper writers?
“I got the idea that a school newspaper appeals to all kinds of kids at school. It's a large school, and it offers something for a variety of kids. Our newspaper has all this potential. The more opportunities you have for kids to express themselves, the better. The kids are learning that when one puts in the effort, it's really challenging, exciting and positive, and yet it's rarely easy,” she says.
“Eileen and I are both paid by the grant through Vermont Independent Media. I enjoy teaching these kids and it's important work. We're very thankful for Vermont Independent Media. Without their support, the Red Clover Times program might not exist,” says Pero.
* * *
Vermont Independent Media (VIM) is a nonprofit organization that publishes The Commons and also organizes the Media Mentoring Project (MMP), which promotes journalism and media literacy skills in Windham County.
Betsy Jaffe is the manager of VIM, a role that includes spearheading the Media Mentoring Project and orchestrating the operations of this newspaper. Prior to her work locally, Jaffe earned a master's degree in education and worked on grant-funded public school initiatives in New York and Boston.
Parks and Pero meet on Wednesdays to write elementary school curriculum for the Media Mentoring Project and on Thursday afternoons, they meet with their students to test the lessons.
When she first came to VIM four years ago, she was intrigued with the Media Mentoring Project, already under way.
“The founders of Vermont Independent Media knew it was important to offer media literacy and journalism programs in Windham County, along with establishing The Commons, in order to ensure community members were empowered to better understand and contribute to local media,” Jaffe says.
Monthly workshops for adults have run at Brooks Memorial Library in Brattleboro and the Rockingham Free Public Library (and some other venues) over the years, and MMP expanded to meet the needs of youth in 2008, working with the Boys & Girls Club and Windham County schools and libraries.
“Ultimately, we wanted to formalize the program to ensure high standards and quality resources for educators,” says Jaffe.
Funding to develop the curriculum was received from the New England Network for Child, Youth, and Family Services, a nonprofit organization that “works to support and advance child and youth services throughout New England,” according to the group's website (www.nenetwork.org).
The website of the Thompson Trust, a charity that also supports MMP, states that the organization's trustees “look favorably upon collaboration and synergy that may exist between small organizations operating in the same geographic area, particularly if they have common purposes and routinely share ideas, referrals, staff and facilities to gain operating efficiencies and strengthen program outcomes.”
Jaffe wants to see school newspapers throughout Windham County.
“If we provided a structure and framework for a writing program that could work inside or outside the school day,” she says, “we might be able to overcome some challenges and help more local youth to get interested in journalism, helping them find their voice.”
And so, working with New England Networks to develop youth-oriented programs, the grant money was used to unite educators and youth workers in Windham County to create a curriculum for elementary, middle school and high school students, and to oversee writing projects in schools.
Two curriculums have already been created.
Julianne Eagan, a Brattleboro Area Middle School teacher (and cofounder of Parent Express), developed the middle school curriculum. Nancy Olson, who chairs the Brattleboro Union High School English department, wrote the high school program. Each program has 10 lessons, provides background and support materials, and is aligned with state and federal grade-level expectations.
For example, in the middle school version, students are asked to learn about the variety of writing types found in newspapers by looking at feature stories, editorials and interviews.
These are not lecture-style lessons. Instead, they engage students with scavenger hunts, looking through a variety of newspapers as teams.
Deborah Leggott is principal of the Townshend Elementary School, whose kindergarten through sixth-grade program serves 90 students.
“We had our very first edition of the Townsend Elementary School News in 2008. At that time, local writer Deborah Luskin joined Vermont Independent Media staff members Betsy Jaffe and Jeff Potter for an afternoon school program to get us started,” she says.
As part of the grant writing process, Jaffe researched test scores for schools in Windham County and found that in 2009, some local schools were as much as 50 percent behind in their students' literacy skills. Jaffe hopes VIM's programs can help raise those scores.
“Learning about your community through the eyes of a school newspaper is a very positive force for students. Taking ownership over their learning within their workplace is a great and wonderful thing, but that work needs supporting,” says Leggott. “We were so happy to get the project started.”
After the first edition of their newspaper, the group transitioned to volunteer Dan DeWalt, a teacher at Leland & Gray Union High School who also serves on VIM's board of directors.
“We've had four issues produced over the past two years. In our last edition, we even had a paid ad from one of the wonderful people who helped put the newspaper together, but it wasn't enough to keep our program going,” laments Leggott. “Our school budget is pretty thin, and I simply can't ask teachers to take more time out of their day to support the newspaper. Our school volunteers are busy with so many other projects that I don't want to load it upon them.”
Because the Townshend project wasn't yet ready to be handed off to teachers or volunteers, VIM has begun to think about creative funding through student-paid tuitions, private donations, and/or grants to keep the newspapers afloat.
“VIM is committed to ensuring that no child is turned away because they cannot afford programming,” Jaffe says. “Delivery models for the program vary and are still being considered as the project learns from its first efforts.”
Back at Academy School, young writers' minds are far away from budgetary concerns as they try a mapping exercise to give them story ideas.
Colorful markers are distributed with large sheets of paper, as I ask these cub reporters to draw circles coming out from their names and put information inside their drawings about who they know, what they wonder about, what is going well, and what challenges them about being in their school community.
Eight young bodies are stretched all over the library floor as they create their personal writing maps. Moments later we meet back at the table. The excitement is high.
Bonnie is thinking about Thanksgiving, its history, and what foods people might be preparing for their meal. Derrick is wondering if anyone has ever seen any paranormal activities at Academy School.
Hannah is more enthusiastic about candy, in all its forms, as the holiday season begins. Jasper is focused on the photo opportunities during the school's Halloween parade.
Hannah sums up the mood.
“I don't exactly know a lot about newspapers, but I do know that it's fun to do, especially the interviewing,” she shares.
Deborah Leggott heard the same types of comments from the students in Townshend. “It was a great experience for those who wanted to be a part of it. Good writing is such an enriching activity.”
By the end of our meeting, each student has an idea for a story which they will begin working on so that when they meet again in seven days, the second edition of the Red Clover Times will be well under way.