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Learning by the book

Posted on February 14, 2008February 14, 2008 by Staff

Members of the black community share stories with Day McLaughlin’s fifth-grade class. Photo by Amy Thomas.

By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer

On a Wednesday morning in Day McLaughlin’s fifth-grade classroom, the 10- and 11-year-old students are busy working on their first book, which will be published this summer.

For the book, each student is writing a story based on a memory told by a member of the black community. When asked what the hardest part about writing the story is, student Skylar Frisch expressed the struggles of many writers.

“You have to find a part where you can stop it,” she said.

And the best part of writing the story?

“You get to make up most of it,” Skylar said. “You take some facts, and then you mix it into what might happen.”

McLaughlin’s fifth graders at McDougle Elementary School interviewed Lincoln High School alumni and other members of the local black community last November when they visited McLaughlin’s classroom.

Euzelle Smith told students about the first horse race she went to, while former alderman Braxton Foushee spoke about protesting in segregated businesses on Franklin Street before integration.

“Most [of the memories] were about protesting, and the jobs that they had to do,” student Carolyn Frederick said. “I knew that that had happened to people, but I thought it was interesting that the people it had happened to were in the classroom telling us about it.”

Rhys Thomas said he chose to write about the memories of Curtis Harper, who told students about fighting white children when he walked through the white neighborhood to get to school.
Harper eventually befriended one of the white children, and the two pretended to fight in front of the other children.

“It seemed very interesting that they would get along,” Rhys said. “They were fighting before, but now they get along.”

McLaughlin’s class two years ago did a similar project, resulting in the book Their History, Our Future. McLaughlin, who has taught for 25 years, including eight at McDougle, said she got the idea from another project she did with students.

“It all got started when the three little African-American boys I had the year before did a book on African-American entrepreneurs,” she said.

The boys had wanted to enter an essay contest about African-American entrepreneurs, but McLaughlin realized they didn’t know who any local black entrepreneurs were.

To help them research the project, McLaughlin spent two teacher workdays taking the boys to different local black-owned businesses.

The boys brought a camera, took notes and distributed business cards, made for them by McLaughlin, to the different business owners.

With the information they collected, the boys put together a book, which they published using grant funding and donations, and then sold. The book, which McLaughlin describes as “like a little directory of black businesses,” was extremely well received, but left readers wanting more.

McLaughlin said members of the black community told her they were worried the stories and memories of the older black generation would get lost, so she had her students talk to black community members and write stories about their memories.

After choosing a memory, the students got started writing. McLaughlin said her students have struggled a bit with their stories, but are slowly but surely plugging along. After completing their stories, they’ll draw illustrations to complement their writing.

While the project has certainly helped to improve the students’ writing skills, it also has provided them with the opportunity to get to know a group they might not have otherwise known, McLaughlin said.

McLaughlin, who grew up in Chapel Hill, said she too has enjoyed meeting the people she has through the project.

“It’s provided me with a huge opportunity to get to know people who were practically invisible when I was growing up,” she said. “I just have been very, very grateful for this opportunity myself.”

McLaughlin hopes the book will be printed by the end of the school year. After publication, the students will sell the books at fairs, and proceeds will be donated to the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Public School Foundation.

Rebecca Clark recalls childhood memories for fifth-graders Gena Weinberg (left) and Charlotte Deming. Photo by Amy Thomas.

Curtis Harper shares childhood memories with fifth-grader Daniel Margolis. Photo by Amy Thomas.

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