Submitted by Brian Goff

On Nov. 5, Barbara Fagan of Rotary Club Friday Harbor, boarded an early ferry to Lopez, to present Lopez 3rd graders with their very own dictionaries. After discussing the Rotary FOUR-WAY test with 3rd grade students, each student took a dictionary and wrote their name inside the cover. The Rotary FOUR-WAY test is four philosophical questions: “Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build goodwill and better friendships? Will it be beneficial to all concerned?”

After each dictionary was inscribed with a student’s name, the class learned how to use the table of contents. Now, the discoveries are ongoing. Sophie likes the sign language pages. Gardner thought it would be a tool for spelling, but discovers lots of other things like geography and planets. Natalya reads the longest word in the English language. Abby likes the dictionary races: Mr.B writes a word on the board and students race to be the first to find the word in the dictionary, using the guide words. Kalani is interested in the braille alphabet. Xavier finds the information and pictures of the states of the US. Jes likes using the guide words to look up words. Genesis likes learning all the names of the planets. Sixto likes finding the periodic table of elements. Danna likes learning sign language for numbers.

Currently, students are using their dictionaries to look up and define weekly spelling words. It’s a beautiful sight, watching kids develop proficiency with a language tool they will use for the rest of their lives. Thank you Rotary for your literacy support!