On Tuesday, South Side Upper Elementary hosted its Kindle Living Literature Project, which was presented by the school’s fifth and sixth graders.
The students worked in teams of five to seven to put together a three part project on a classic play, poem or short story.
The project entailed a display board and brochure on the respective piece of literature, a research project on the author and a research section on a non- fiction element related to the book.
What made these projects special was the manner in which the students were able to read their book.
South Side received a grant through the Lower Pearl River Valley Foundation in the fall of 2014, which enabled them to purchase a total of 52 Kindle E readers. The students were able to use the devices to read the books for their projects.
Sixth grader Ashlyn Wilson said she prefers reading on the Kindle rather than an actual book.
“The Kindle has a dictionary so if you don’t understand a word you can tap it and the definition comes up,” said Wilson.
Wilson is not the only student at South Side who prefers the Kindle, most students agree using the reader makes life a little bit easier.
“You don’t have to turn a bunch of pages with the Kindle you can just swipe over to go to the next page,” said fifth grader Sean Burnett.
Fifth grade reading teacher P.J. Williams said the goal of the Kindle project is to introduce the students’ to classic literature while also introducing them to 21st century skills.
“We are really excited and really grateful to the foundation, this has really increased the students love of reading,” said Williams.
Williams said not only did the foundation provide the funding for the
Kindles, but they also provided additional funding for the school to purchase e-books.
According to Williams, each Kindle can hold 120 e-books, and the school has been able to purchase a total of 6,000.