St. Louis King of France & Abp. Chapelle team up for innovative writing project

(All photos courtesy of Archbishop Chapelle High School)

By BETH DONZE
Clarion Herald

A multidisciplinary collaboration between a Catholic elementary school and a Catholic high school brought together 51 students from St. Louis King of France and 38 students from Archbishop Chapelle for a bilingual writing project focusing on creative storytelling and local culture.

The unique partnership, which began last August, culminated this spring with a Cinco de Mayo-themed showcase at Chapelle called “Festival De Arte.” The event included the distribution of a bound anthology of the St. Louis King of France students’ writings in both English and Spanish.

At the festival, the young writers, from grades K-2, went up to the microphone to read stories – in Spanish and English – on which they had worked with their writing buddies from Chapelle.

“Some of our teachers were surprised to see the confidence of some children they didn’t think would be brave enough to get up and read in front of an audience,” noted Jackie Sperier, the St. Louis King of France reading intervention specialist who conceived the elementary/high school collaboration and got it funded through a service-learning grant from the Joe and Dorothy Dorsett Brown Foundation.

“One of my first graders came up to me (after reading his story) and said, ‘Are you proud of me, Ms. Jackie?’ His confidence had blossomed!” Sperier said. “You just don’t realize what these kids can do until you put them in a situation and they step up!”

St. Louis King of France reached out to the all-girls’ high school to be its 2021-22 learning partner in a project that called on the reading, writing, speaking, music, Spanish, art and computer skills of students and teachers from both schools. To prepare her youngsters for the writing exercise, Sperier showed them her own written and illustrated version of the “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” as an example of a finished piece.

“They could take a nursery rhyme, a (known) story or create a story of their own. They could rewrite about their heritage or something about Louisiana,” Sperier said. “We wanted this book to teach about our culture, our celebrations, our holidays. What do we want to tell people about New Orleans? We kept (the writing options) broad.”

The youngsters met with their assigned teenage mentor from Chapelle over four, hour-long sessions, bused to and from Chapelle’s campus by Dale Lacour, the high school’s athletic director.

Using their Chromebooks, the youngsters worked alongside Chapelle students on numerous drafts. They illustrated their stories before publishing the finished pieces – in Spanish and English – with the help of the two schools’ Spanish teachers: Bertha Cerna of St. Louis King of France, and Michaela Kametani-Rider of Chapelle.

In addition to local culture, popular writing topics included sports, pets and vacations. Some highlights:

Second grader Luca Sclafini worked with Chapelle sophomore Ayva Smith to write about the differences between crocodiles and alligators.

Kindergartner Madison Cruz buddied up with Chapelle junior Samantha Mouledoux to write the following poem: There once was a cat who got stuck in a tree I And then a girl came to help the cat free I So off ran the cat back into his home I To get a small snack, a drink and a nap.

Fantasy was the genre selected by kindergartners Pavla McGee and Stella Mollere, who worked with Chapelle sophomore Marissa Graffato to pen the following tall tale: Yesterday I went to the beach and saw a cat and a dog. Both of them said they wanted to eat ice cream and cupcakes. So we went to eat. At the bakery, we met a red tiger and his friend who is a spider. After we ate, we went back to the beach and drank lemonade. We sat in the sun and dolphins jumped out of the water.

First grader Lucca Melkowits partnered with Chapelle sophomore Dakota Millette to write a poem about her favorite sport: Soccer is fun. Soccer makes you run. You have to kick the ball, let’s hope we don’t fall. Into the goal, the soccer ball will roll. When we win we will play again.

At the culminating program, students from both schools performed songs in English and Spanish, guided by Melissa Brocato, St. Louis King of France’s music/choir director; and Trina Hille, director of Chapelle’s Chorale. Refreshments and a piñata concluded the program.

Sperier commended the Chapelle students for being “really invested” in their young charges during the collaborative writing sessions.

“They encouraged the kids; they guided them and gave them ideas. They were totally committed,” Sperier said. “Who knows? This may inspire them to be a teacher one day, and it gave them an opportunity to say, ‘I made a difference.’”

On the elementary school side, St. Louis King of France students had the thrill of working on academics and performing at a high school campus with their teenage friends from Chapelle.

“Our kids would look forward to going (to campus) every time,” Sperier said. “They would run up to me and ask me, ‘Are we going to Chapelle today?’”