Unity Braxton Middle School
On February 6th, 2024, Unity Braxton Middle School held its very own Multilingual Family Transliteracies Project. The program for the night was centered around the book The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer. Students and their families participated in activities that explored how William used creative thinking, determination, and hard work to change the future of his hometown. Student volunteers helped to distribute a copy of the book to each family, and after a brief introduction to the night’s program, families dispersed into several different classrooms to complete the various activities available.
The activities organized by the teachers covered a range of subjects, which showed that literacy is important in all school subject areas. The activities also encouraged students to share their own cultural experiences. One such activity involved using various shapes to construct a model village and labeling each object in the students’ native language(s) and in English, integrating math vocabulary with the experience of building something. Another activity involved students writing their own stories on a computer. With the help of the teacher and student volunteers, these stories were turned into videos, which were compiled along with other students’ stories into an interactive story collection. In the science classroom, students worked together with their families to construct a pinwheel, representative of the windmill that was prevalent in William’s story, made from pencils, paper, and nails.
These activities not only helped students to engage with their families in meaningful learning but also gave them the chance to share their culture in an encouraging environment.
