At Cincinnati's Hughes High School, they're taking a page from a Hollywood script to spark student learning. Working with the University of Cincinnati, the school has started a program based on the success of the "Freedom Writers" project that started in the early 90s in Long Beach, California, later featured in the 2007 Hilary Swank film of the same name.
As part of the "Reading and Writing" (RAW) literacy initiative started at Hughes in 2010, the program groups teachers — ranging from college juniors to graduate students — with groups of Hughes students in writing and discussion groups to explore social and education issues.
Meeting in small groups over an 11-week span, different groups focus on different areas including photography, literacy, creative writing and reading.
While some of the groups are an outlet for self-expression or exploring career options, the creative writing group — the Freedom Writers — read books, learn to relate to them and are then encouraged to pen their own essays about the issues that affect their lives the most, ranging from the most superfluous (dating, school life and cliques) to more dire and pressing issues (gangs, drugs, racism, suicide and death).
The program is based on the national model started by teacher Erin Gruwell in California. Working with "at-risk" students, Gruwell encouraged them to participate in a dialogue and write pieces based on their own lives and observations. Their anonymous articles were later combined in a book, "The Freedom Writers' Diary." Many of the former "at-risk" kids moved on to graduate high school and some even attended college.
Fifty-three college students from UC started the program in Cincinnati working with Hughes students. The effort received an early boost from a visit from Gruwell herself, who visited Cincinnati in May 2011, and spoke to students from Hughes and several other schools in the area. She was also joined by two of her original students for a special event at the city's National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.
The local program is already deemed a success, and is returning for the 2011-12 school year.
As well as its impact on the Hughes students, it also prepares the college participants "for teaching diverse populations, specifically in urban settings. Prepares teachers to more effectively meet the needs of all students by learning to collaborate and meet the needs of the Hughes STEM high school students," says Chet Laine, an associate professor of literacy and secondary education at the University of Cincinnati and an organizer behind the literacy initiative.
According to Laine, it's hoped that the program will continue and expand to other area schools. A similar initiative has already established a foothold at Rothenburg Elementary in Over-the-Rhine, an urban area just north of downtown Cincinnati.