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JAMESTOWN – Hundreds of elementary students in Jamestown recently wrapped up a year of learning from one of the area’s most known icons: Lucille Ball.
Known as “Lucy Lessons,” educators at Jamestown Public Schools partnered with those at the National Comedy Center to connect episodes of the famous “I Love Lucy” program to instill lessons with the grade schoolers.
Program Director Bonnie Kole hopes the inactive helped close the pandemic learning gap.
“Lucy Lessons simply uses the episodes of I Love Lucy to teach kids, and we use this as an engagement tool, as an intervention tool, to help close the achievement gap and the learning loss that the kids have experienced,“ explained Kole. “But also we use Lucy Lessons to extend learning for students who need more enhanced and enriched material.”
Unlike traditional teaching methods, the curriculum focused on those proficient with visual learning, according to Fletcher Elementary School teacher Pam Gustafson.
“It works,” says Gustafson. “It works because it presents the same skill building in a whole different manner.”
Besides closing the learning gap, Kole touts the lessons’ teaching power to give a new generation insight on Jamestown’s famous Lucile Ball.
“A year ago the kids were kind of not sure what I Love Lucy was or who Lucille Ball was, and now we have another generation that we have built,” stated Kole. “And we have created another layer of Lucy fans.”
Those involved with the program are excited for the possibility of “Lucy Lessons” continuing in the years to come.
“I want my next group of kiddos to be able to experience it and I know that the buzz will get into the school and then it will hopefully get the second graders who will be my next year thinking about it and excited about it as well,” explained Gustafson.
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