Community-Engaged Literary Pen Pal Program

Abstract

Background - This community-engaged research project, titled Bridge Through Books, paired Chicago Public School (CPS) and District 64 suburban third grade students in a literary pen pal program. Bridge Through Books aimed to improve reading and writing frequency and enjoyment. The program also sought to develop social connections among the urban and suburban youth. The researcher hypothesized that students would cite increased frequency and enjoyment of reading and writing after the intervention compared to the control group. Furthermore, the researcher hypothesized that social connectedness and discussions about books with students from other schools would be higher among those participating in the program. Methods - Eight schools were selected to participate, four in CPS and four in District 64. School librarians delivered the interventions. The intention was for each student to write three letters to their literary pen pal or pen pals. Each school had an intervention group that participated in the program and a control group that did not participate in the program. Surveys were completed by control and experimental classrooms prior to and after the intervention. These surveys were then assessed to determine if the program objectives were accomplished. The intervention was delivered from January through March, 2020.Results - Two out of eight schools completed the pre-intervention and post-intervention survey data. Pre-intervention data was retrieved from seven experimental classrooms and six out of eight control classrooms among participating schools. Pre-intervention survey responses were similar across the control and experimental groups. Among the two schools that completed pre-intervention and post-intervention data, a statistically significant higher number of students perceived they developed friendships with students from their partner school after completing the intervention (p=<0.001). Additionally, a statistically significant higher number of students in the experimental group stated that after the intervention, they spoke to friends at other schools about books (p=<0.001). There was no statistical improvement in reading and writing frequency and enjoyment. Fishers exact tests were used to compare the equality of survey response proportions. Discussion - Due to the small sample size of control group and experimental group students that completed both surveys, it is difficult to say whether or not the program achieved its objectives. However, the groups that participated in the program felt friendships were developed and that books were talked about more with students who went to other schools. Because of project implementation difficulties, inconsistent communication between the lead researcher and participating librarians, and outside factors such as the CPS 2019 strike and the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, not all schools completed the intervention. Bridge Through Books, a novel literary pen pal program, was implemented in the Chicagoland area in an effort to promote reading, writing, and social connectedness among urban and suburban third grade youth. The program was not successful in achieving all of these goals and should be altered if the program were to be implemented again to address these unaccomplished goals and to address the potential burden the program placed on participating librarians.

Acknowledgements

Thank you to Dorsey Chambers-Malewig, the CPS Library Coordinator, who advocated for this project from the onset of the idea and allowed for the project to come to fruition. Thank you to all of the librarians who participated in this project: Connie Amon, Rebecca Dowling, Melanie Ferrand, Andrea Hetzke, Brittney Joyce, Natalie Kendall, Kathleen Loftus, Caroline Schaab, and Nora Wiltse. Thank you to the project mentor, Dr. Jenifer Cartland, and the consulting biostatistician, Dr. Lauren Balmert. Thank you to Dr. Rishi Agrawal for his approval of this project idea and his remarks throughout. Thank you to MPH program leaders Dr. Michael Fagen, Professor Maureen Moran, and Dr. Darius Tandon for their ongoing support and for providing the opportunity to conduct this community engaged research through the framework of this program.

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