1. Floyd County/Betsy Layne High School
Memories...Building a Positive Self-Image Through Writing (and becoming College Ready) 
Patricia S. Hackworth
Floyd County/Betsy Layne High School
Grade 12

2. Description of the Project
This grant will help students who did not meet their ACT benchmark in Reading and/or Writing.
Writers/Readers become proficient through PRACTICE. My students need to be immersed in the written word. This project will create a memory book using interviews and memories from families and friends--personal essays/poetry/short stories. After writing, the class will peer edit and help each other revise.

3. By using other Appalachian authors, the students will read about the beauty of the area and will even use photography to show the beauty in our region. Many times, our geographical area is stereotyped in a negative manner, so one of the vital parts of the grant will be to help our students see the beauty and the privilege of being able to say, “I am from Appalachia. I am an Eastern Kentuckian.” I also want the students to read memoirs and personal narratives so they can understand the beauty in “telling a good story.”

4. Kentucky’s definition of college readiness basically means a level of preparation a student needs in order to succeed in college-level classes. “Succeed” can be defined as a grade of a “B” or better in those classes.
ACT Benchmark Score for Reading—20
ACT Benchmark Score for English—18
At Betsy Layne High School
If a student DOES NOT meet either of the two ELA benchmarks during their Junior year ACT, they will be placed in ENG (Transitional English) during their Senior year. This is in addition to their English IV class. So in essence, the students who do not meet benchmark are taking two English classes during their Senior year of high school.

5. Statistics Current Roster Beginning of the year 3rd Period—6 (1)
7th Period—10 (6)
In 3rd Period, 1 of the 6 have tested out but chose to stay.
In 7th period, 6 of the 10 have tested out but chose to stay.
Beginning of the year
3rd Period—23
7th Period—27
Currently, I only have 9 students who still need to reach a benchmark in either Reading or English (out of 50 at the beginning of the year.)– 18% of my students still need to reach a benchmark

6. Reading Materials Excerpts from: The Good Brother by Chris Offutt
What My Heart Wants to Tell by Verna Mae Slone
Various Stories from the following collections:
Appalachia Now: Short Stories of Contemporary Appalachia Editors: Larry Smith and Charles Dodd White
Hell and Ohio by Chris Holbrook
Kentucky Straight: Stories by Chris Offutt
The Ron Rash Reader Edited by Randall Wilhelm
Brown Bottle by Sheldon Compton
Woodsong by Gary Paulsen
I am Malala
Various Informative Articles concerning both modern day and
historic happenings in Appalachia (with emphasis on
Eastern KY.)

7. Writing Assignments Interviews with family members
Poetry (“Where I’m From” Template by George Ella Lyon) and “Abandoned Farmhouse” by Ted Kooser
Peer editing and review
Sustained reading/writing over a period of time with both personal and peer reflection

8. Positives for Reading
Since English is technically an elective, I have a little more freedom with the curriculum. My sole purpose, when teaching this class, is to help students get ready to retake the ACT and/or take the English and Reading portions of the COMPASS or the KYOTE exams. I need to focus on shorter passages—similar to what they will see on the exams.

9. If I focus on smaller passages, the idea of using short stories and poetry will help students be able to analyze and decode readings. Reading and understanding poetry is difficult and students need to understand that if they can understand the brevity of poetry, they can definitely attack larger passages.

10. Thumbs Up for Reading
The grant helped give the students more varied passages and more in-depth discussion about relevant topics. We were able to look at stereotypes of the area, “what it means to be an Appalachian” and different customs. Students were able to connect with some of the stories and the poetry and the connection helped them want to CONTINUE TO READ. I was also able to target males and read a Gary Paulsen Memoir.

11. Positives for Writing
Students need to be able to edit and revise for the English portion of the ACT and the COMPASS exam. The KYOTE writing exam involves writing an essay to a prompt (which is usually persuasive in nature.)

12. The grant allowed the students to write and edit/revise with their peers. While we need to be able to edit and revise others works, it seems to be harder for my students to edit and revise their personal writing. Working on creative writing (poetry/short stories) is something that sometimes gets lost in curriculum. Since this was an elective class, I was able to bring more creative writing to the table.

13. Abandoned Farmhouse by Ted Kooser
He was a big man, says the size of his shoes
on a pile of broken dishes by the house;
a tall man too, says the length of the bed
in an upstairs room; and a good, God-fearing man,
says the Bible with a broken back
on the floor below the window, dusty with sun;
but not a man for farming, say the fields
cluttered with boulders and the leaky barn.
A woman lived with him, says the bedroom wall
papered with lilacs and the kitchen shelves
covered with oilcloth, and they had a child,
says the sandbox made from a tractor tire.
Money was scarce, say the jars of plum preserves
and canned tomatoes sealed in the cellar hole.
And the winters cold, say the rags in the window frames.
It was lonely here, says the narrow country road.
Something went wrong, says the empty house
in the weed-choked yard. Stones in the fields
say he was not a farmer; the still-sealed jars
in the cellar say she left in a nervous haste.
And the child? Its toys are strewn in the yard
like branches after a storm—a rubber cow,
a rusty tractor with a broken plow,
a doll in overalls. Something went wrong, they say.
Ted Kooser, "Abandoned Farmhouse" from Sure Signs: New and Selected Poems. Copyright © 1980 by Ted Kooser.  Reprinted by permission of University of Pittsburgh Press.
Source: Sure Signs: New and Selected Poems (Zoland Books, 1980)

14. Thumbs Up for Writing
Because students were either revising their own or a friend’s writing, the students were more invested in the writing. That investment transferred to writing a KYOTE essay. I heard conversations such as “I don’t think all your support is relevant.” or “Your supporting details seem to repeat themselves.” or “Your conclusion is weak. You seem to lose my interest here…”

15. Considerations for next year
I lost many of my students when they “tested out of the class.” The end of the year’s roster was significantly different than the beginning of the year.
Some of the students loved the prompts which were written for the Appalachian writings and seemed to not have that same level of investment when they encountered a KYOTE writing prompt. Students need more exposure to prompts which are more “generic” like the KYOTE prompts.

16. Considerations for next year
Start working on the reading passages and the writing earlier in the year. Possibly use more newspapers/magazine for current events.
Use more poetry to show the brevity of language and the idea that less is more.
Figure out a way to make the students (who stay after testing out) become incredibly invested during the Spring Semester (when “senioritis” happens.)

17. Questions? Thoughts on helping make this better??