Elementary students become New Brunswick's newest authors
Some students at Priestman Street School can now say they're authors.
The English as a Second Language program at Priestman Street had 18 students write their own books, which include a story in the student's first language and a translation into English.
The languages in these books include Mandarin, Cantonese, Farsi, Arabic, Spanish, French, Korean, Hebrew, Russian and Vietnamese.
The project was done in partnership with Fredericton High School and their ESL teacher Kathy Whynot. There were 43 students all together in the project.
Amy Jackson, an ESL teacher at Priestman Street School, said they thought it would be fun to have the students write books.
"We decided to pair them up with her students and pair them up as much as we could by language, because one of our goals was to have kids work in their language, which would allow them to be much more creative," she said.
The students would meet up a couple of times a week for 10 weeks. That time became a lot of fun for the kids and they were able to speak to their partners and write their stories in their own languages.
"They just loved every moment. They counted the days down," said Jackson.
"It was always, 'Amy, what day? When are we doing the book?'"
The final product also includes artwork.
Julie MacLean, a Fredericton artist, gave the students art lessons so they could illustrate their books.
The books will be available at the Priestman Street School library, so other Priestman Street School students can also read the books and see their classmates' hard work.
"They are very welcoming here of the newcomers, but it's hard for them sometimes to recognize that a newcomer with less English ... are really bright, really creative kids, who are fluent in at least one other language," Jackson said.
"So for them to be able to see a book written in another language and to hear it, is good for these Canadian kids too."
The students will be presented with their books and celebrate their achievements on Friday.
