The (Little) Hole in the Donut House

First of all, it's probably becoming apparent that I like to play devil's advocate. So let me say first: I love the Donut House idea. It's creative, it's engaging, it's effective. I just want to suggest one more emphasis.

That students who dreaded writing were able to engage in so much of it in this project is astounding. And talk about confidence building: how many students at this age could claim to have experience in writing stock certificates and loan application forms? My one hang-up with this project is that it ultimately is a little one-sided. Encouraging practical literacy is at its core promoting literacy that is immediately beneficial for relevant communication. At only limited points in the scope of this project did students receive communication from others. The fact that they loved receiving personal letters from stockholders and returned to them often for re-reading is a crucial point, and one that could have been carried through to a higher degree.

What if local bakeries had been enlisted not only to speak to students, but also to write to them? What if recipes had been contributed by older family members? What if customers had been asked to fill out comment cards? The result, I believe, would have been twofold. One, students would have made more explicitly the connection between literacy and shared ideas; a two-way street of communication. Two, they would begin to accumulate a broader vocabulary related to their interest: what is a business model? A whisk? What does it mean to be satisfied? After the joy of reading the letters they did receive, it seems there could have been many more opportunities to have written communication flowing to the students.

So that's it. One small beef. Speaking of which, who knows what kind of vocabulary the students might have gained if they had served something like this.