I first became acquainted with the My Hero Project at NECC in San Diego in 2006. Kids research someone they respect and admire, write about him/her, and publish their work at this site. It was a wonderful program then, and it has grown to something even better now.

Let’s consider the literacy skills alone:

• reading for comprehension
• understanding cause and effect
• organizing and classifying information
• using tables of contents and indexes to locate information
• restate facts, summarize main ideas
• connect prior knowledge to new information in a text
• distinguish between fact and opinion in informational text
• prepare a document using technology
• gather evidence in support of a thesis
• use Standard Written English
• demonstrate understanding of correct spelling, punctuation, and other writing conventions
• apply appropriate manuscript conventions
• support assertions using examples, facts, and relevant details
• edit and proofread using an editing checklist
• integrate quotations into a text
• synthesize information from multiple sources

Let’s also consider what happens when students write about why they respect someone. From the youngest child to the most cynical adolescent, each writer chooses a vision of goodness that will stay with them. Not perfection, perhaps, but something to measure their own actions by, a means to develop character. In the long run this project make better choices in tough situations.

Browse the entries at the My Hero Project (www.myhero.com) and join them as they “celebrate the best of humanity.”

Posted Tue, 08 Jan 2008 00:01:26 and filed under Classroom practice, Nonfiction, Projects, Writing, eNotes. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.