Fourth-graders from Coeur d’Alene Elementary School anxiously gathered outside of Franz Hall on Wednesday for their personal appointments with UCLA students, where they gained a university student’s perspective on writing.
English Professor Shelby Popham invited the fourth-grade class of Coeur d’Alene School to interview students from her two English Composition 3 sections in order to introduce advanced writing strategies to elementary school students and give undergraduates an opportunity to interact with children.
“(The fourth-graders see) what it’s like to write as an older person and learn some of the strategies that my students at UCLA are using. The other benefit is to bring these students to UCLA to see if it is a possibility in their future,” Popham said.
After only an hour of conversation, fourth-grader Francis Russo tugged on first-year engineering student James Barbour’s T-shirt sleeve, urging him to elaborate on how to overcome writer’s block.
Upon receiving a mini-grant from the Office for Instructional Development six weeks ago, Popham mobilized UCLA Transportation Services and was able to fund the field trip in collaboration with Jack Bax, a fourth-grade teacher at Coeur d’Alene. Last week the students of UCLA and Coeur d’Alene exchanged letters introducing themselves, but they were formally introduced before their interviews.
The idea began in 2003 when Popham taught a preparation class for aspiring elementary school teachers and hosted the Westport Heights second-grade class to interact with her students.
In 2006, she molded the idea to fit her English Composition 3 course when she invited Coeur d’Alene’s second-grade class to interview her students. This year she hosted the same group of students that visited two years ago.
Popham also recognizes the impact it has on her university students, since they are able to find their inner child while acting as educators.
“I think it helps them to remember how they started as writers and to be able to tap into those abilities they had when they were younger and continue to refine them,” she said.
Popham’s daughter, Jennifer Ahern, attends Coeur d’Alene and was present for both field trips.
Nikhil Kulkarni, a first-year mechanical engineering student, said the event provided a refreshing perspective on writing, because it helped him rediscover a childhood chimera.
“It was a great way to get an innocent, childlike perspective of the way a child thinks about writing, which is totally different from how we think, but at the same time, it’s very similar as well,” he said.
Before parting ways, the UCLA students presented their fourth-grade counterparts with gifts. Courtney Viney, a first-year undeclared student and member of the football team, gave his partner, Christopher Simon, a football signed by each member of the current team.
Popham said she hopes to see the impact the event had on her students at the end of the quarter when they turn in their final papers, which is a case study about themselves as writers.
“They have to write about the things they have done through the quarter, how they have progressed and what their weaknesses are. One of the things they have to talk about is the interview and what they learned from the little kids as writers,” she said.