A Ticket to Self-Expression
A Ticket to Self-Expression
The Dictionary Project provides students with an erstwhile-school ticket to the timeless gift of linguistic communication
Mar. 29, 2019
"How do you lot use a dictionary?"
Kim McKay asked this question on a recent Friday afternoon, as she handed out new copies of A Student'due south Dictionary to two classrooms full of 3rd class students at Spring Garden Elementary School. Hands in the classroom immediately shot up.
"When y'all don't know how to spell a word," said a boy sitting in the middle of the classroom.
"When you don't know what a word means," chimed in another girl.
McKay, a member of the Philadelphia Ethical Order, was making her annual visit to the school on behalf of The Dictionary Project, a Charleston, Due south Carolina-based nonprofit with a mission to provide every third grader in the United States with a lexicon. Since its inception in 1995, volunteers around the world have distributed 18 million dictionaries to students in the U.S. and 15-plus other countries around the globe.
Through her interest in The Philadelphia Upstanding Order, an arrangement founded in 1885 to "create meaningfulness in the globe and treat others with respect," McKay has been carrying out the work of The Dictionary Project for four years, visiting Stephanie Perna's third grade grade each time.
The Dictionary Project'due south origins date back to 1992, when Annie Plummer, a housekeeper in Savannah, Georgia, gave 50 dictionaries to students in a nearby school. In her lifetime—Plummer died in 1999—she raised enough money through dress sales, a Dictionary Walkathon, and the aid of local churches and community centers to buy 17,000 dictionaries for Savannah children. Her work was expanded by other volunteers and The Dictionary Project officially became a nonprofit in 1995.
The Dictionary Project has distributed 18 million dictionaries to students in the U.S. and 15-plus other countries around the world.
3rd grade is a key year to get the tomes in the hands of students: Educators, as the Project'due south website says, consider that year "the dividing line between learning to read and reading to learn." Past fourth class, if students struggle with reading, they will likely accept trouble comprehending data in classes beyond just English, including history, science and math. That's why the City and Free Library launched Read by 4th, a citywide effort to get every educatee reading at grade level by the end of third grade.
Tech enthusiasts might meet dictionaries every bit obsolete, merely McKay disagrees. Not 
every student has access to the internet, she points out. And with a lexicon, students tin derive a real sense of achievement when they find a word they're looking for. Plus, merely flipping pages to search for a definition exposes students to new words they may not have known. Like, for instance, plethora, McKay'south favorite give-and-take, which she asked the students to wait up.
She showed the students how to navigate the pages of the dictionary past using alphabetical gild and paying attention to the words at the summit corner of each folio. Their new dictionaries as well had the alphabet listed on the back comprehend, in case the students forgot, say, if "one thousand" came before or subsequently "due north."
So McKay charged the students with looking upwardly definitions of whatever words they chose. They excitedly called them out: Protestation ! Respectful ! Queen ! They raced to discover the definitions and read them aloud.
As the students in Perna's and Diana Ilisco's classes settled downward, McKay read a quote she had placed inside each students' dictionary. "There's a power in words," it began. "At that place's a power in being able to explain and describe and articulate what you lot know and experience and believe about the world and nigh yourself."
McKay explained why the quote from singer Tracy Chapman was of import to her. With new dictionaries, she told the students, they'd be able to improve draw their thoughts and ideas. "It is important to use the right words to describe what you lot think," she said. "No one can read minds."
Photo via Communities in Schools 
Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/a-ticket-to-self-expression/
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