LEWISTON — Third-grade students from Longley School had the opportunity to attend a Portland Sea Dogs game with the support of a private donor and the Lewiston Education Fund.
The vision for the project, created by Deena Mayo-Bruns, a reading interventionist at Longley, came from her belief in helping the children of Longley School build background knowledge and cultural literacy. While working with small reading groups in many early reading texts, Mayo-Bruns was struck by the numerous references to baseball.
For many American-born children from middle class families who experience baseball, it’s a comfortable setting for books and the vocabulary is familiar. Baseball for most of the immigrant children and children born into poverty is often unknown and unfamiliar.
With the help of the third-grade classroom teachers, the children were taught a unit with the theme of baseball, culminating with a trip to the Sea Dogs. The teachers presented new vocabulary and taught the rules of the game, teamwork concepts and information about the world of Maine beyond Lewiston.
To learn more about the Lewiston Education Fund, visit www.lewistoneducationfund.org or contact Beth Gaudet at 795-4100.
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- Third-graders from Longley School are pictured during a recent trip to a Portland Sea Dogs baseball game.
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