WHY WORDS MATTER

IF ONLY THIS AGE-OLD REFRAIN WERE TRUE: Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. Third-grade students were asked to assess the validity of this saying at the start of an expanded literacy unit that exposed them to the power of words.

A key component of the project was an activity in which students wrote words on river stones to describe themselves. They talked through multiple ways to explore their identity with prompting from their teachers, who asked them: Who are you? What would you like classmates to know about you? What words do you use to describe yourself and others? The words that came pouring out were captured in portraits of each student, their word stones framing their heads.

“I can use these words to be powerful,” Luke Nussdorf ’32 said of his chosen word stones. “I feel them with my whole heart.” The project, inspired by an installation of artist Jessica Beel at a local exhibit, was so much more than a basic lesson in nouns and adjectives. It taught students how to choose words precisely, especially in telling their own stories.