Through writing letters, students build
a bridge together to foster understanding
and friendship between the seniors in the
ESL class and their neighbors, the children
at the Fairmount Elementary School. The Pen
Pal Project gave both groups a reason to write.
"Today, December 13, 2001, we had a
celebration with the children from Fairmount
Elementary School that we have been writing
to this semester. Yesterday we decorated the
room with balloons and a banner. The students
from the third - fifth grade walked a block
from their school tour class at the 30th Street
Senior center. My students were very excited
and clapped their hands when the children
arrived. We all had nametags and began to
find our pen pals in the group of over fifty
children and adults. I gave a brief welcome
and thank you to the children and their teacher
Christine Velasco led us in a cooperative
activity to the music of Celia Cruz. She played
music and we walked around and greeted people.
When the music stopped we were to talk with
the person closest to us and answer a question,
"Describe your house" and the second round
question was, "If you had a million dollars
what would you do with it?" Later the children
sang two songs. One was "Queremos
paz" and the next was
"Lean on me". Then we had refreshments,
took photos with our pen pals and had time
to get to know each other.
It was wonderful to see the seniors with their
pen pals. I felt bad for those students whose
pen pals were absent. A number of my students
had left for vacation and some were sick."
Evaluation
of the Project
"At the end, some of the children gave
thanks and appreciation to my class. It was
a wonderful experience. We have built a
bridge together that has brought together
young and old. Where do we go from here? Each
day we have opportunities to build bridges
or walls. The choice is ours. It's easy to
hide, but at what cost? Will we accept the
challenge of building new bridges or be content
to stay where we are? It was a difficult
project because I have an open - entry multi-level
class with students who find it a challenge
to write in English. I had 20 - 40 students
on any given day while Cynthia's (the primary
elementary teacher) had 17. She ended up recruiting
two more teachers to help with the project."
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