VIDEO: Joyce Eighth-Graders Hook Readers with Residents' Profiles

You could hear a pin drop when students in Kathryn Materazzo’s eight grade classes at the voted. On the ballot: five candidates.

Would they vote for:

• The dad “(p)utting away the dishes in his dirty work clothes” and “reminiscing about his childhood,” the “carpenter who has lived in Woburn his whole life,” who is known to his family as “’Daddy’ or ‘the Taxi,’ because of all the rides he gives.”
• The stay-at-home mom not “cooking in the kitchen, cleaning the house, doing laundry, or running errands,” but, instead, working with “wood, power tools, table saws, and things being built, from bookshelves to forts.”
•  The woman who “works, and takes care of her grandchildren” and “interviews veterans, studies history and is involved in her community.”
• The “(t)eacher, cheering coach, involved in Woburn sports, social groups, member of the Shamrock PTO, and the HS scholarship fund” and once active in the DARE program.
• Or the Air Force lieutenant colonel. “Everyday he fight for his country, not on the battlefield, but miles away. The weapons he designs and buys, and the improvements to them, help make it safer for people over on the battlefield.”

Don’t you want to know more about each of those people?

The students were not voting for two of these people, but rather for the two students who wrote the best profiles, or features, on their subjects in a unique led by English teacher Materazzo and history teacher Rob Tropea.

The winners:  Nicole Tschuor, who wrote about Lt. Col. Tomas Tschuor and Delaney McDaniel, who featured teacher, cheering coach and more Ann Boudreau.

Emily Crampton wrote the feature about the carpenter and taxi:  her dad, David.

Kylie Romano composed “Not Your Average Mom,” about her mother, Michelle.

Yan Ni Kelly profiled Kathleen Lucero, who is active in the community.

As part of the project, students developed questions to ask their subjects during an interview, conducted the interview, developed and asked follow up questions to learn even more about their subjects and included some history as seen through their subjects’ eyes. , especially the lead, or first paragraph, to capture readers’ attention. Students selected their own interview subjects.

Materazzo and Tropea are impressed with the results.

“Every student shined,” according to Materazzo. The project demonstrated to students that “they can do this own their own, write something they can be proud of.”

“For a teacher,” Tropea wrote to Woburn Patch, “there is no reward greater than seeing students go above and beyond what is expected of them.”

Materazzo “taught them structure, pushed them to rewrite and revise, and helped those who struggled along the way,” Tropea wrote.

“Many of (the students) actually impressed themselves.”

“The dedication Kathy has put into encouraging our students that they could write well, and the high expectations that we told them we had for them has paid off.”

What made this assignment different from others, according to eighth-grader Kimberly Moya, was the interview.

The teachers also learned during the process. Materazzo said she learned that students needed some help organizing their materials. She made them a template to help them keep track of their interview questions and answers, by topic.

Woburn Patch participated in the project by following the students’ progress over two months and offering a few tips on interviewing, writing and developing story leads.

Watch the videos to hear the authors of the top five features read the openings to their profiles.

Woburn Patch will run the top five profiles after Materazzo gives them one final look.

Download the movie