A Small Success with Big Implications

Today, a student from Mmaweshi Primary School really impressed us. Throughout the newspaper project, we have mostly been working on understanding how to write articles based on personal thoughts and opinions. We haven’t been able to add much about outside research or opinions. Luke, a 7th grader, was working with three other learners on an article about the lack of a health clinic near by. All of the learners were contributing their thoughts into the article. After letting them work for a while, we looked over and realized that they had added quotes into the article from a local community member! Not a single one of us had asked a learner to do this or even suggested it at this point. Luke told us that he had interviewed the community member the day before, meaning the he had thought out his topic the day before and taken the initiative to think up questions to ask for his article. We were all amazed. Not only was this great for the newspaper but also showed us that the newspaper project is actually helping them critically think and be creative.

We talked with Luke about telling his classmates about what he did and now we can only hope that they will want to take the same initiative as he did!