A New York Program
By Linda Jacino

Last year at the Day Reporting Center (an alternative sentencing program for nonviolent offenders), we employed a summer project that put a little twist on the traditional Changing Lives theme. We think it really helped many of our participants get more into the reading and to use their visualization skills more effectively.

Our project consisted of six one-hour-long sessions, and the stories of choice were excerpts from Deliverance and Affliction (both are found in the CLTL text). We devoted three sessions to each story.

One might note a similarity in these works in that Hollywood movies were made in the wake of their being written. Our goal was to try to use that popular visual medium to our advantage in getting the participants to be more alert, insightful readers.

As far as how we coordinated the activities is concerned, we would first have a brief anticipatory discussion of the story, indicating the basic plot and themes that the participants could expect. We would then "roll" the film, and stop whenever we got to the point that the reading excerpt began. From there we would discuss things that might normally be addressed in a typical CLTL session, like character descriptions, conflicts, turning points, predictions, etc. Then we would do the reading. It became fairly obvious that the participants were more interested, enthusiastic readers than they might have been otherwise.

Upon completing the reading portion of the story, we would return to and finish the video. Again, there was a sense of appreciation for what we had just read (a fun, tangential aspect of doing this is to compare and contrast the book and the movie).

Since then, we have expanded on the concept. We have subsequently done readings from plays (Death of a Salesman, The Diary of Anne Frank, The Miracle Worker), and movie screenplays (To Kill a Mockingbird, Good Will Hunting), coordinating them with visual versions of the stories. We have been fortunate to be in a situation where, in the cases of The Diary of Anne Frank and The Miracle Worker, we even went on field trips to attend professional versions of the plays.

When all is said and done, it seems clear that doing this has enhanced the experience for us all...