DICTIONARY PROJECT
Q & A

Dictionaries provided to 3rd grade students at Freedom Academy in Provo, Utah
(donated by Utah Valley Sunrise Club)

Question: (Q):WHAT IS THE DICTIONARY PROJECT?

Answer (A): A Rotary project with the goal of presenting a personal dictionary to each third grade student in Utah schools.

Q: WHY SHOULD MY/ANY ROTARY CLUB BE INVOLVED?

A : Because it is:

• A great COMMUNITY service project
• A wonderful literacy project
• An opportunity to involve Rotarians in a hands-on project that does not require a huge time commitment
• Relatively inexpensive
• A chance to increase awareness of Rotary in the community by putting the Four-Way Test and Rotary logo in thousands of homes
• An opportunity to unite with other Rotary clubs in the community or area in a cooperative effort to distribute more dictionaries to more students and schools
• A great event for media coverage.

Q: HOW DO WE BEGIN?

A: Once the club has decided to participate in The Dictionary Project; you appoint a committee, determine the funds available for the project, and decide how many dictionaries the club can distribute to third graders based on the available funds.

Q: WHERE CAN I GO FOR HELP?

A: Help is available at :

• The Dictionary Project website: www.dictionaryproject.org where you may review the different dictionaries available (if you have not previously seen the various editions, sample copies can be ordered by calling 843-856-2706 for $10.00.)
• You may determine the desired edition and place your order, following the instructions on the Web site: www.dictionaryproject.org.

Q:ONCE YOUR CLUB DECIDES TO DO THE PROJECT WHERE DO YOU GO FROM THERE?

A : Follow the steps below :

STEP ONE : Contact your local school principal or school administrators.

• If you have decided to include more than your local elementary school, contact the school district superintendent and explain the project.
• Once permission is granted by the principal or superintendent, obtain a list of the elementary schools and number of third grade students enrolled.
• If you want to make the initial contact to administrators by letter, The Dictionary Project Web site has samples of letters to use. Include in your letters that teachers should be alerted to the project and prepare a teaching unit on the use of the dictionary and the other features in the various editions. Obtain a list of the students in each class.

NOTE: By cooperating with other clubs in your area you may be able to increase the number of schools who will benefit from the project. For example, the two Park City Clubs joined together to do all the schools in Summit County.

STEP TWO : Prepare to personalize the dictionaries, while waiting for their arrival. Label designs can be downloaded from The Dictionary Project Web site through the Get Involved link. The preferred one includes the Rotary wheel, the Four-Way Test, and a line for the student’s name, as well as the name of the Rotary Club.

• Once you have downloaded the information, you can then print the labels on Avery 5168 Labels. Order Rotary wheel stickers (1inch size) to be placed on the front cover of the dictionary. Order from Russell Hampton or National Awards Services. The labels can be prepared, including each individual student’s name prior to the arrival of the dictionaries.
• When the dictionaries arrive, arrange to have the labels and seals placed in the books.
• This is a good time to involve Interact or Rotaract club members or spouses and older children of Club members and encourage participation of less-active Rotarians.

STEP THREE: Assign one or more Rotarians to each school for the presentation. Usually two or three Rotarians can present the dictionaries and introduce the students to Rotary and their new books in about 15 or 20 minutes.

The same two or three Rotarians can visit every class in a school, going from room to room, or assign enough Rotarians to have two or three Rotarians in each classroom for simultaneous presentation.

STEP FOUR : Points to make during your brief visit:

• Introduce yourself. Distribute the dictionaries. If you have not used personalized labels, tell the students to put their first and last name in the dictionary so that if they lose the book, it can be returned to them.
• Explain that you are visiting their school to give each student his/her own personal dictionary as a gift from the community as your members are part of the business community.
• Ask if anyone has ever heard of Rotary, and if a student has, ask him or her to talk about it. Then define what Rotary is and talk briefly about the organization. Try to engage the students as much as possible because they want to contribute to the conversation.
• Ask why people use dictionaries; then emphasize that in the business world it is important to spell words correctly. A command of the English language makes you more effective in your work. You may have your own personal experience that you want to share.
• Ask a student to read the Four-Way Test from the label. Then look up the meaning of each of the words. Invite them to look up an unfamiliar word in their dictionary and read the definition. Or ask the students to suggest words and then look up a few of the words. Talk about the meaning and how some of the words have multiple meanings.

In closing, encourage the students to use the dictionary everyday. No one expects them to be able to spell every word correctly, but they are expected to use a dictionary so that in all of their writing every word is spelled correctly.

The visit should last 10-15 minutes.

STEP FIVE: Arrange for widespread media coverage. Contact the media and alert them when you have obtained the presentation date from the school. Invite and seriously encourage various media personalities to attend the event. Some clubs have had a “kick off” meeting with a few students, some Rotarians, local school officials and government officers invited to attend. After that meeting, individuals could go directly to schools previously arranged for that day, or they could wait until a later date.

STEP SIX : Post media coverage on your club’s Web site; submit the story and pictures to the district Web site and to The Dictionary Project. Whether the media attends or not, have someone from your club act as a photographer or historian for the event and you can then submit photos and information to local news media.

STEP SEVEN: Follow up on the project by:

• Writing a letter to the administrator or teacher of the class expressing your appreciation for their assistance and participation.
• Keep the project as an agenda item for the Club Board meetings for future planning.

INFORMATION AND SUGGESTIONS

1 . Distribution : Select a distribution date that can be tied to some other important literacy event. For this year, 2004-2005, our district has chosen to have a district-wide distribution the week preceding October 16, which is Noah Webster’s birthday.

2. Ways to Finance The Dictionary Project:

a . Anyway your club usually finances!

b . Use “fines” or “Happy Dollars” or whatever your club does at its weekly meetings to collect money. Dedicate ce rtain collection days to the project.

c . Contact local businesses for their support. One club contacted the banks in town – got each bank to buy the dictionaries for one school. The Rotarians did the work, and prepared the labels including the sponsoring bank as well as the Rotary Club as the presenter. Some businesses (Wal-Mart for example) have “Community Matching Grants” which can be obtained for this project.

d. This project also qualifies for the Rotary District Simplified Grants program.

• Some clubs have had individuals who want to donate dictionaries to schools. In some cases, these individuals have already obtained dictionaries to donate, others wanted to purchase the dictionaries in memory or honor of a family member, etc. When that is done, the labels should reflect the involvement and contributions of all.

3. Some things we have learned:

• When ordering the dictionaries be sure to order enough to give one to each classroom teacher.

• On the presentation day, take extra dictionaries and extra labels for new students.

Labels can be downloaded at www.dictionaryproject.org/labels.html

• If students have a need for a Spanish-English dictionary order a few copies to present to the teacher for use in the classroom. It does not work well to present these bi-lingual dictionaries to individual students as they still want the same one that the other class members receive.