PROPOSAL
February 11, 2021
Mrs. Amy Boutilier
Sport and Medical Sciences Academy
280 Huyshope Avenue
Hartford, CT 06106
Dear Mrs. Boutilier:
My plan for the capstone project is to run a virtual book club for middle school students and help them view themselves as readers. I’ll be running it as a google meet every Wednesday when we don’t have class and all middle school students can join. Why I want to do this is because I want to give back to my community in a way that matters to me, not just so I can use this as my ticket to graduation. Why it matters to me is because as a kid I always enjoyed reading, and I understand that as technology use increases, reading decreases along with it. I believe that reading can affect these kids in a positive way by providing them with a healthy coping method, and distraction as well as making them lifelong readers which will help them cope with daily life’s stresses as it did for me. We’re starting on the first day of March and I will have them read two to three chapters a week since I know they’re busy and finish the first book in six weeks and move onto another book afterwards. I’ll also offer these students help with their English assignments, staying for an extra hour each Wednesday for any kid that may need it to help reach my required 15 hours of community service.
My research question is: Does daily reading help increase overall satisfaction in life while providing a healthy distraction and coping mechanisms? I will be talking to these kids every week so it’ll be possible for me to see any differences in the way they talk, and as well as hopefully being their own mentor to these students providing guidance if they want. This will help me successfully notice increments in overall enjoyment of life. The artifacts I’ll be collecting are any messages the kids send me, as well as recording every meet so I can look back and see how I helped these kids, while also helping satisfy my own desire to read daily and give back to them.
I have asked Ms. Munafo from Sports and Medical Sciences Academy to be my mentor. Her contact information is [email protected]. Her qualifications to be my mentor is that she is a 7th grade English teacher at the school, and can help me with getting students to join my book club with which I had difficulties in figuring out on how to do it as well as the fact she is an English teacher who also enjoys reading just as much as me and has the same amount of excitement as I do to providing these kids with a hopeful path to becoming self dedicated readers as we both say we are. I predict my learning stretch will be being too anxious to put myself out there and talk to these people and put myself in a role model position. I predict my learning stretch will be learning how to find the motivation to do this and get it done and help these kids. The part of this project that will push me this way is talking to people I’ve never known before, and talking to them in a way that I can guide them and help them deal with the daily stresses of life by providing them with a healthy coping mechanism such as reading which I believe will also boost their mental health.
Sincerely,
Almir Hamzabegovic