is published by the
Boston Women’s Heritage Trail
22 Holbrook Street
Boston, MA 02130
617-522-2872
howsmoyer@aol.com
www.bwht.org
Board of Directors
President: Mary Howland Smoyer
Vice President: Sylvia McDowell
Secretary: Liane Curtis
Treasurer: Gretchen O ’Neill
Meg Campbell
Julie Crockford
Charlotte Harris
Erica Hirshler
Michelle Jenney
Vera Johnson
Diana Lam
Barbara Locurto
Maria de los Angeles Montes
Patricia Sarango
Elaine Taber
Marie A.Turley
Susan Wilson
Advisory Board
Barbara Clark Elam
Carol Geyer
Jean Gibran
Polly Welts Kaufman
Loretta Roach
Nan Stein
Joyce Stevens
Stephanie Wong-Fan
Consultants
Afra Hersi
Bonnie Hurd Smith
Sara Masucci
The Boston Women’s Heritage Trail is a nonprofit organization founded in 1989 as a program of the Boston Public Schools.Through educational programs, publications, and outreach initiatives, the BWHT is dedicated to weaving the lives and work of women back into the story of the City of Boston. We are available for research assistance, speaking engagements, and to collaborate on programs and projects.
Editor: Mary Smoyer
Design: Patricia Sarango
Logo design: Ginny O ’Neil
Hello
everyone,I am pleased and excited to be working with the Boston Women’s Heritage Trail and the excellent Perseverance Curriculum Program and Essay Contest for the Boston Public School eighth grade. The goal of the program is to encourage students to read, discover and discuss the powerful stories of determined and courageous women who persevere against the odds. As part of this goal, students will read and discuss a variety of young-adult fiction and nonfiction which explores the theme of perseverance. The culminating activity of the program is an essay contest and awards ceremony. Students will write an essay nominating a woman in their lives or in the community who exemplifies perseverance in her life. An awards ceremony will be held honoring the winners, participating students, their families and teachers.
What’s new?
This year, the Perseverance curriculum has been modified to be compatible with the readers and writers workshop programs used in many of the Boston public schools. The curriculum will explore the theme of perseverance using a variety of genres such as short stories, autobiographies, biographies, poetry and novel excerpts. Teachers will receive a curriculum packet with selected text, a teaching guide, biographies of notable Boston women, a BWHT guide and an extensive bibliography of children’s and young-adult literature that will encourage and support young readers to choose to read and write about a powerful theme.
As students respond to different pieces of literature related to the theme of perseverance, discussing how different writers approach this theme in various genres, they will develop the seeds for their own writing. In their essay nominating an individual who exemplifies perseverance, students will explore their understandings of the concept of perseverance and how it relates to people and events in their own lives. This powerful activity has the added benefit of bringing students’ experience and community into the classroom.
In the coming weeks, I will be visiting BPS classrooms to discuss the curriculum and essay contest with students. We are on our way to an exciting year.
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Born
in Somalia, Afra immigrated to the United States with her family in
1980. She received her bachelor degree in history and secondary education
from Radford University in Virginia in 1993. For eight years, she
taught social studies in both suburban and urban settings. In the
summer of 2002, she received her Masters degree in Curriculum and
Instruction from Boston College, where she is currently enrolled in
the Ph.D. Curriculum and Instruction program. Her focus of study is
literacy development and the role of teachers in school-wide reform
efforts. The Perseverance Program is funded in part by the Cabot Family Charitable Trust. |
 
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