MATTHEW  ISOM

 

Kids in Need Foundation Grant Proposal

 

Project Title:  A Window to the Past—Narrative Writing

 

Amount: $485

 

School District Name: Salem-Keizer 24J/WESD    

 

Name of School: South Salem High School

 

Name of Teacher:   Matthew Isom

 

Name of Principal:  David Phelps

 

Years taught in Oregon K-12 public education:  7 years

Years taught overall:  21

 

Content areas that you are teaching in:  English, Mythology, Theory of Knowledge

 

Reasons for grant request: funding needed to purchase books for community outreach program

 

A Window into the Past-- Personal Narrative Project

 

My 10th grade  students will visit the Sunnyside Care Center where each student will be paired with a 70-100 year-old person.  After learning good interview skills, students will interview their partner to hear stories of meaningful experiences that their partner had when they were 7-12 years-old.   With the help of the interviewee, the student will choose one of these stories and take notes so that they can write a 500 word narrative.  After the narratives have been written and polished, my students will then be paired with a 3rd grade student at our local grade school.  These 3rd graders will be coached by my students to read the narrative with feeling.  The grade school students will then dress up in period clothing, and their class and my class will visit Sunnyside Care Center together and present the narratives to the people who lived these experiences. These stories will then be bound in books published by B.Y.U. online press and each student in my class of 34 students will be given a copy of the book as well as one copy for me to keep for examples for next year's class.  I am confident that this project will be one of the very few high school projects that my students will still remember when they, themselves, are 80 years-old.  

 

I am asking the Kids in Need Foundation to pay for the publication of these 70 books. 

 

South Salem High school has stated in its mission statement  that:

 

     South Salem High School is a community of learners who value integrity;

     high academic standards; respect for self and others; 

     and positive involvement in school, community and the world

 

Clearly, our emphasis at South Salem High School is upon community-- unified community among the student body and involvement in the larger community of Salem and the world.   The goal of my A Window into the Past  project is five-fold and directly works to fulfill our school's goals:

• To give students an understanding of other people, particularly the elderly

• To teach students interview skills

• To teach students to write meaningful personal narratives

• To teach students to work with children

• To teach students oral presentation skills

I feel that this project will give students the vision and the skills necessary for them to make a difference in the community.  And as an English teacher, I am particularly pleased that this project will give students a sense of relevancy as they undertake the primary goals of the English Department, which are to teach reading, writing, and speaking skills.

 

I also feel that it is important for projects in the English Department to follow Salem-Keizer School District's current literacy program, which states that the purpose of language arts is to enable students to become lifelong learners who use their skills to make a difference in the world:

 

     Mission: In partnership with the community, we ensure that each student will have
     the essential knowledge, skills and attitudes to be a lifelong learner, a contributing
     citizen and a productive worker in a changing and increasingly diverse world.

 

Unfortunately, many of our students come into my classroom lacking these requisite skills.  State writing scores for South Salem High School 10th graders were at 56% last year and scores from our feeder elementary and middle schools are all in the 40-70% range.  It is unacceptable for nearly half of our students to fail these tests.  To put things in perspective, this 56% number means that 220 of South High's 500 sophomores are poised to enter society unprepaqred to communicate their ideas at even an average level. 

 

During my 21 years of teaching I have observed that students learn to write when they are motivated to write, and they feel motivated to write when they sense that what they are doing is relevant.

 

GRANT EXPENDITURE PLAN

 

 

COURSE	# BOOKS	PAGES	PRICE/PAGE	# BOOKS	TOTAL
English Class 1	35books @	80	$0.08/page	$6.40/book	$224
English Class 2	35books @	80	$0.08/page	$6.40/book	$224
TOTAL COST					$448