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Small Press Publishingwith students in
NYC Alternative High Schools, Special Education,
and Inclusion Programs
Question 1
Will “at risk” youth and
students with disabilities, who
creatively express themselves,
develop a sense of personal
merit through desktop and
online publishing?
The greatest social theme of our time is the empowerment of those
previously regarded as powerless.
Richard Kostelanetzliterary critic, and editor of
The Avant Garde Tradition in Literature
In the 1980s, the dissemination of the personal computer, enabled student writers
with poor graphomotor skillsto compose legible copy,
and facilitated its storage and transport.
In 1986 Ten Penny Players began using Commodore 128s, IBM clones, Apple IIs,
Bank Street Writer, PW, and 5” floppy disksto bring poetry and small press publishing to “at risk” and special education students
in NYC public schools.
Students with disabilities and those attendingalternative schools and programs -- including incarcerated youth,
many of whom had registered reading scores below the average for their respective ages.
were encouraged to write poems and to prepare their work
for publication in chapbooks that were printed in small editions.
While student authors received ten gratis copies,
the surplus (of editions of 50) was made available
to teachers to use in their classes.
“The mish-mosh of your life becomes a story.You’re not a troubled kid.
You’re an author by becoming one of a community.Here is a sense of a kid embracing literacy.”
Alison Koffler, poet
I like to write poetry because I like to express my feelings
and tell the world about different things
without giving a boring lecture. Anthony
Streams OnLine (SOL) is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL)
which is an open source license.
Question 2
Do students, using technology,
write at a level radically
different from their reading
skills or oral language skills?
The SOL project began in late December 1998.
The tool was introduced to two alternative school programs by January 1999
for Alpha testing.
Frederick Douglass Literacy Center was a NYC Board of Education site
in Brooklyn that served 17-21 year olds testing below 6.0 reading levels.
Island Academy is a NYC Board of Education site
on Rikers Island jail that serves 16-21 year old
incarcerated youth (including those with disabilities).
The literacy center reported more enjoymentand enthusiasm to get back to SOL
than when students used a word processor.
Immediate feedback motivated the students to write expressively in order to be published in their own
chapbooks.
There was an increase in the production of publications and the number of participating teachers and students.
Poets and mentoring teachers workedwith student authors to edit, design,print, and digitally format chapbooks.
By year 2, SOL used the Internet domain name---sol.tenpennyplayers.organd grew from 2 to 23
different NYC high school collaborations.
The 2003 NYC schools reorganizationstopped further SOL development.
But, in terms of use, SOL was clearly
a success!
23 collaborations
1,997 student authors
663 teachers, poets, and mentors
6,284 original works
2,876 comments
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