Books & Beyond
Project by Nancy Uslan
Project by Nancy Uslan
Interactive teaching and learning is a new concept at Kabwende Primary School in Ruhengeri province Rwanda, replacing the “Chalk and Talk” method which has been the only method of teaching since colonial days. Enter Books and Beyond --- a student-driven Critical Thinking/English Literacy program which is a collaboration between Indiana University’s Global Village Living Learning Center, the IU School of Education, Newark Collegiate Academy, and Kabwende Primary School. Kabwende students, ages 5-17, have never owned a book. Students of Newark Collegiate Academy, a lower socio- economic high school in Newark, NJ, wrote children’s stories about “Home” or “Their Safest Place” while being mentored by Indiana University Global Village students. The stories and student-drawn illustrations were published and printed.
In June of 2009, eleven representatives, including students and teachers from Indiana University and Newark Collegiate Academy, traveled to Kabwende with 2,000 copies of the Books and Beyond storybook. Every student at Kabwende received his or her very own book, created to hone the skills needed to help each student develop independent critical thinking, a previously unimaginable and unattainable goal. In turn, the Kabwende students will write their own stories, sending them back to the US where they will be printed and combined with the already published American stories. The final anthology will be sold with proceeds benefiting Kabwende Primary School.
Your funding will publish 2,000 books for the students at Kabwende Primary School.
Project location: Newark, NJ
$50 donation will receive IU Global Village or Newark Collegiate Academy T-shirt
$100 donation will receive 5 x 7 photo of Kabwende students autographed by US student authors
$1,000 donation will have a story dedicated to the giver