Focus on TUSD - May 2007

Reader's Theaters Explore American Heritage
From the pages of many books, students from a half-dozen Tucson schools are exploring what it means to become an American at Reader's Theaters in their schools and community libraries.

Using a $15,469 government grant, schools and libraries employed a drama coach and art teacher to train readers and help students prepare artistic backgrounds. Students chose material to illustrate the theme "Becoming American." To prepare for the Reader's Theaters, they met with the drama and art teachers for weekly sessions during the eight-week program.

Twenty fifth-graders at C.E. Rose Elementary School, 710 W. Michigan Drive, staged their Reader's Theater last month at the school. They read "We are Americans. Voices of the Immigrant Experience" by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler, a book of primary sources spanning the generations from the Africans in 1765 to American lives today. The program closes with the poem "We are Americans," which students wrote. On April 19, C.E. Rose students reprised their performance at the El Pueblo Neighborhood Center.

At C.E. Rose, while 14 students learned to read the selections, a corresponding group crafted the scenery. Art students made a 5-foot Statue of Liberty from rolled-up newspapers, paper-mache and paint, along with a boat and flags of the countries represented in the book.

Paul Fisher was the drama coach and Michelle Williams was the art teacher for the program.
Participating TUSD schools and the libraries they were paired with, in addition to C.E. Rose and El Pueblo Library, are Van Buskirk Elementary School and Quincie Douglas Library, and Lynn/Urquides Elementary School and the Mission Branch Library, whose programs have both been presented, and Wakefield Middle School and the South Tucson Library, whose program will be May 21.

The program is paid for through federal Museum and Library Services funds, according to Martin Rivera, branch manager of the Mission Branch Library.

-- By Sharon Dunham
Communications & Media Relations

TUSD - Proud Supporter of Small Classes

All photos in the May issue by Jes Ruvalcaba of Communications & Media Relations.

The deadline to submit material for the June Focus is Friday, June 8. The Focus will be published Monday, June 18. Email submissions to Chyrl Hill Lander or Sharon Dunham in the Communications & Media Relations Department or use the Focus Online Submission Form.