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The Anchorage School District has a very diverse student body with over 100 different languages spoken and Anchorage has 5 of the top 10 diverse schools in the United States. Often English is not the students first language. Providing students with their own personal dictionary may be a helpful tool for students learning English as a second language. Having a better understanding of English should help the student learn and perform better in school. In the past we have distributed approximately 3,000-4,000 dictionaries (depending on the fall admissions) in the Anchorage area to include schools on the Military bases and some of the Alternative schools.
The Dictionaries include other valuable resources to include periodic tables, conversion tables, state capitals, as well as geography, science and math information.
The secondary benefit of providing Dictionaries to low income students, is this is something they can use at home and we are giving them something they can call their own which often can give them some sense of pride that may help improve their self esteem.
This is Anchorage South Rotary's signature hands-on projects where we have approx. 30-40 of the club members participate by delivering the Dictionaries in person to each of the 3rd Grade Classrooms and spending sometime time in each of the classrooms meeting with the students to show them how to use their personal dictionary. It's so much fun to see what questions the students come up with and have them find some new and interesting words.
We look forward to seeing the smile on each child's face when they realize this is their own personal dictionary.
Timeline:
September 2026: Dictionaries purchased, shipped, sorted
October - December 2026: Dictionaries distributed to schools
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