By:Michael Arges
East Windsor Regional schools are using the power of literature to help students grow in their ability to know and to do what is right, thanks to a program designed by the district.
"Character Through Reading" is the title of the program created for students in the first five years of schooling. School guidance counselors use literature and other storytelling to provoke discussion and reflection on moral issues.
The new program is funded by a state grant from the New Jersey Character Education Initiative and was introduced into the curriculum this year. All of East Windsor’s elementary schools instituted the new program at the beginning of the school year.
"The district feels that we need to expose kids to pieces of literature because in the elementary schools there’s no better way to catch the imagination of children more than in authentic pieces of literature," district Program Director Felicia Adubato, who presented an overview to the school board at a recent meeting, noted. "Within those pieces of literature there are moral and ethical dilemmas that the characters have to solve."
The students’ reflection on these literary decisions will inform their own moral decisions later on.
"According to the newsletters that we’re getting from the schools, the schools are doing a lot more in recognizing students for being good listeners, for being good citizens and for helping out," Ms. Adubato noted. "It’s a community that’s used to giving to others, and we’re just trying to continue that practice with children, so that as they get older the community will always be a giving community."
Ms. Adubato said the program was developed by the district to be specific to the needs of local students. She indicated that the literary approach to character education would be a perfect fit with the district’s new Language Arts Program, which uses anthologies of great literature with a multicultural emphasis.
Another facet of the program is Black School guidance counselor Joan Fuller’s use of puppets and role playing to involve students in finding practical solutions to moral problems.
"I do a lot of puppetry in the lower grades," she said. "The puppets usually have a problem like the puppets can’t get along, or they’re teasing or they’re calling each other names. And the children have to help them solve the problem without fighting."
Students are taught to "use your words" rather than fighting, so even the little kids will yell to the puppets, "Use your words! Use your words!" Ms. Fuller noted.
In all elementary grade levels, Ms Fuller uses role-plays, in which the children themselves get up and act out a situation. Ms. Fuller usually acts out the role of the bad person, and the children correct her bad actions and attitudes. Role playing can address all kinds of issues from discouraging older children from racial and ethnic prejudice to warning younger children about strangers.
