Madison Reporter

Multilingual Resource Teacher Emily Vosberg guided Sauk Trail fourth graders in transforming a persuasive essay writing assignment into a service project benefiting the Dane County Humane Society. The idea arose when students selected social issues for their research assignments.

"Many of the students that I support come from other countries in which it is common to have lots of homeless animals roaming the streets, and they would tell me about animals that used to live near their houses," Vosberg said. "I decided to teach them about animal shelters here in our local community and how much they benefit our community and those across the United States."

To assist with research, Vosberg invited a veterinary technician friend from the Dane County Humane Society as a guest speaker.

"My students enjoyed learning about the animals at the Humane Society so much that we decided to make posters for some of the available pets at the shelter to convince patrons to buy those pets," Vosberg said. "We especially focused on the shelter's 'Lonely Hearts Club,' which includes animals that have been at the shelter the longest without finding their forever home."

Students hope their posters will inspire adoptions, offering an additional resource for the animal shelter.

"Because my students are bilingual, we were able to write these posters in both English and Spanish, providing a language resource to the shelter that it does not normally have."

"My students have been highly engaged in this project and have really liked learning about animals," Vosberg said. "For many of these students, reading and writing are among their greatest challenges of the day, so it is frequently difficult to get them to willingly engage in these topics."

She shared a student's sentiment: "I feel like I am finally learning and succeeding."

"It is a great feeling to know that this project is having a positive impact not only on their writing abilities but also on their overall self-perception and feelings towards school," Vosberg said.

Vosberg emphasized teaching students they can impact their community.

"Oftentimes students have the will and initiative to make change but do not feel that they are powerful enough to make a difference. This is especially true for our multilingual students," Vosberg said. "My hope is that this project allowed them to see that their voice is important, that they can help others, and that they can make a difference in their community."