The story deepens
At East Boston’s McKay School, Brianna Guilford led her class of tin men, cowardly lions, Dorothys, and scarecrows into the sunlight. “We’re reading ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz,’ the original story, and they’re exploring and interpreting the story through the creative arts using a program called Pre-Texts,” she said, as the students ran outside. Having created masks and costumes inspired by the L. Frank Baum story, the children were seeking a real-world setting related to the chapter they were reading, as a way to deepen their connection with the characters and story. The activity wasn’t just for fun, but was meant to help the students, for whom English is a second language, become stronger readers and English speakers. In addition, “Oz” is a fourth-grade-level text — well above the supposed reading level of Guilford’s second-graders. Backed by the Boston Public Schools (BPS), Pre-Texts was developed by Doris Sommer, the Ira and Jewell Williams...