IBA's Summer Learning Project is a 5-week, project- based academic enrichment program that aims to stem summer learning
Building Community ¡Sí, Se Puede! / Yes, We Can!
By the 2nd and 3rd Graders in IBA’s Summer Learning Project 2017
IBA’s Summer Learning Project is a 5-week, projectbased academic enrichment program that aims to stem summer learning loss, develop language and literacy, and support social and emotional development in rising 2nd and 3rd grade students. Now in its seventh summer of programming offered through a partnership with Boston Public Schools Office of English Language Learners and Boston After School & Beyond, IBA’s Summer Learning Project welcomed students from across the city of Boston to the Blackstone Innovation School in the South End. These students explored the essential question, “What is Community?”
Building Community: ¡Sí, Se Puede! / Yes, We Can! IBA’s Summer Learning Project is a 5‐week, project‐based academic enrichment program that aims to stem summer learning loss, develop lan‐ guage and literacy, and support social and emotional development in ris‐ ing 2nd and 3rd grade students. Now in its seventh summer of programming offered through a partnership with Boston Public Schools Office of English Language Learners and Boston After School & Beyond, IBA’s Summer Learning Project welcomed students from across the city of Boston to the Blackstone Innovation School in the South End. These students explored the essential question, “What is Community?” Throughout summer 2017, students became researchers and activists as they went on field trips to sites throughout the community, including the South End branch of the Boston Public Library, Villa Victoria, More Than Words bookstore, Engine 22 of the Boston Fire Department, the Southwest Corridor Park, and IBA’s Preschool. The students met important community leaders along the way, including Mayor Marty Walsh, and in‐ terviewed the people that they met through their exploration. The book you are holding, Build ing Com m unity: ¡Sí, Se Pued e! / Yes, We Can! was written and illustrated by the students in IBA’s program. It features indi‐ vidual art projects and writings, as well as group‐created documentation of the places and people they researched. The program included rigorous academic instruction, but it also pro‐ vided students with a new lens through which to observe the world around them. This book will serve as a resource for future young activists.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Students ask: What is a community?
Page 3
Student explore Southwest Corridor Park
Page 6
Page 9
Students visit Boston Fire Department Engine 22
Page 12
Students visit More Than Words bookstore
Page 15
How do you build a good community?
Page 16
Students learn about Villa Victoria
Page 17
Page 18
Page 19
Students ask: How can I improve my community?
Page 21
Teachers Reflect
Page 27
Thank You
Page 29
How do communities provide for basic needs?
Mayor Walsh opens Monsignor Reynolds
Playground with IBA Students
Community Helper Interviews
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Students ask: What is a community?
During each week of IBA’s summer program, students explored an essential question and visited sites around the South End. Through reading, researching at the library, exploring, and asking ques‐ tions, students were able to produce written pieces to present their research.
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Students explore SOUTHWEST CORRIDOR PARK
The Southwest Corridor Park is a five‐mile‐long park. The park goes along the path of the Orange Line transit from Forest Hills to Back Bay. These five miles of park land connect people from many neighborhoods. The park al‐ so connects neighbors in oth‐ er ways. People get to know each other through gardens and bicycling and playgrounds and sports. Parks are an important part of city life.
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In the 1960s, the land that is now a park al‐ most became a high‐ way. At that time, all over the country, there were big high‐ ways being built right through city neighborhoods. The people of Boston said they did not want a highway. They made their voices heard. After a long struggle, the highway plans were cancelled. Instead we have a park and bike path and subway line. Ever since then, many people have worked together to take care of the park and make it someplace special for our neighborhoods.
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Students used their observations of the Southwest Corridor Park and the com‐ munity to create watercolor depic‐ tions of their idea of community in a Dot, just as Vashti created inspired artwork in Peter H. Reynolds’s The Do t.
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How do communities provide for basic needs?
Throughout the summer, students researched people and places in the community that provide for basic needs. Students wrote about essen al services, like police, firefighters, and garbage collectors. Every Tuesday, students volunteered at IBA’s Fair Foods site to help distribute low cost fresh foods to the community, gaining hands on experience in how the community provides for basic needs.
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Community helpers provide for my basic needs. A baker is im‐ portant to the commu‐ nity because the food they make is affordable.
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Doctors provide for my basic needs because they help people stay healthy.
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Students visit BOSTON FIRE DEPARTMENT Engine 22
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Students visit MORE THAN WORDS bookstore
More Than Words is a nonprofit social enterprise that empowers youth who are in the foster care system, court involved, homeless, or out of school to take charge of their lives by taking charge of a business. IBA’s students learned about the process of acquiring books and preparing them for sale. Students were then able to pur‐ chase their own books.
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How do you build a good community?
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Students learn about VILLA VICTORIA
In 1968, the inhabitants of the Parcel 19 in the South End orga‐ nized, and with the support of hundreds of protesters, they fought to stop the displacement they were facing.
They finally won this battle, which not only allowed their people to keep their homes but also gave them the right to control and develop their community.
IBA then developed Villa Victoria (Victory Village), a 435 unit affordable housing community in the city’s South End neighborhood. Villa Victoria has become a model in the areas of civil rights, community organizing, affordable housing, education and arts programs. 17
Mayor Walsh opens MONSIGNOR REYNOLDS PLAYGROUND with IBA students
On July 18, students from IBA’s program helped Mayor Marty Walsh open the new Monsignor Reynolds Playground.
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Community Helper Interviews
Tiana interviewed a very important community helper during Coffee Hour with Mayor Marty Walsh at Monsignor Reynolds Playground. Here is her interview: Tiana: What is your job title? Mayor Walsh: I’m the Mayor. T: Where do you work? M: I work at City Hall. T: What are your responsibili‐ ties? M: I run the city.
T: What is your favorite part of your job?
M: Talking to kids.
T: What is your least favorite part of your job?
M: Talking on the phone. 19
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Students ask: How can I improve my community?
As part of their exploration of community, students read ¡Si, Se Puede! / Yes, We Can!: Janitor Strike in L.A. by Diana Cohn. They learned about the successful janitors’ strike in Los Angeles in 2000 and practiced a play based on the story.
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Students also thought about problems in their community — like littering and bullying — and created comic strips about how these problems could be solved and superheroes to solve
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Teachers Reflect
This summer has been inspirational! I have seen a group of children–many of them meeting for the first time– become a community of empathetic and supportive classmates. Students used their voices to talk about how they feel, and they learned new strategies for dealing with strong–and sometimes unpleasant–feelings. Students also learned about how other children from all around the world, have used their voices to improve their own communi‐ ties. I have learned from the children in the IBA summer program, that it is possible for everyone to contribute their own unique skills, interests, helpfulness, and kindness, to build a community where everyone feels welcome.—Paula Leoni, ESL Teacher
What a wonderful summer using theater to explore and build community. Students learned acting skills while bringing a story about community activism to life! I am im‐ mensely proud of their growth. ‐ Natalie Bruno, Theater Teacher 27
This summer has been great! The students demonstrated a deep understanding of commu‐ nity as a place but also as a part of them. They shifted their mindset from what the community has and provides to what their role is in the com‐ munity. It has been wonderful seeing them de‐ velop an activist lens. ‐ Veronica Navarro, ESL Lead Teacher
The IBA summer program teaches the students the meaning of community through engaging curriculum. Itʹs been a place the students can call home this summer. Iʹve truly enjoyed see‐ ing the students grow these past five weeks into good community members for their neighbor‐ hood. — Lauren Kale, Art Teacher
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Thank You
Summer Learning Project Participants
Summer Learning Project Staff
Alanys Torres Alberto Alvarado Angel Sierra Ashley Yisanta Nival Bivianette Fernandini Chastity Gomez Edarwin Santana Pimental Eduanny Pierret Torres Emily Nguyen Esteban Alexander Olivero Metz Everest Morales Laporte Isabella Gonzalez Isaiah Rosa Jensel Cosme Diaz Jeremmy Drullar Arias Joan Rojas Justin Drullar Arias Katherine Pham Kenneth Tran Leonel Aguirre Garcia Luis Medina Geovani Marlon Dos Santos Pires Mylee Truong Naytlee Barnett Oliver Peralta Ommy Rivera Pedro Santana Romina Salcedo Puma Ruby Aracelis Peguero Sandira Lopes Shameylisse Rivera Tekeya Fuentes Tiana Acevedo Yahzarie Lopez Yaneishka Trujillo Yariliss Alvarado Yerelise Rodriguez Medina Yesleiny Lajara Yetziel Castillo Diaz
Shannon Hayes, Program Coordinator Paula Leoni, ESL Lead Teacher Verónica Navarro, ESL Lead Teacher Lauren Kale, Art Teacher Natalie Bruno, Theater Teacher Julia Rios, Teaching Assistant Waleska Brown, Teaching Assistant Maryum Mark, Instructional Coach
Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción Lauren Bard, Director of Youth Development Programs
Boston After School & Beyond David McAuley Kelsey Cowan
Boston Public Schools Arianna Wilson Chi Nguyen Flormarina Arias
Field Trip Sites Margaret Gardener, Boston Public Library South End Branch
Cornell Coley, Afro‐Latin Rhythm Company
Michelle McCourt, Boston Fire Department
Engine 22, Boston Fire Department
Southwest Corridor Park’s Parkland Manage‐ ment Advisory Committee
BU REACH! Dance Program
IBA’s Fair Foods Volunteers
Mayor Marty Walsh 29
