Communities: We Can All Be Heroes

IBA’s Summer Learning Project is a 5-week, project-based enrichment program that aims to reverse summer learning loss, develop language and literacy, and support social and emotional development in 2nd and 3rd grade students. Now in its fifth year of programming offered through a partnership with Boston After School & Beyond and Boston Public School’s Office of English Language Learners, IBA’s Summer Learning Project welcomed 40 students from schools throughout Boston to the Blackstone Innovation School, where students explored the the essential question, “What is Community?”


Inspired by a reading of the book Superdog: The Heart of a Hero by Carlyn Buehner at the South End Branch of the Boston Public Library, students wanted to learn more about the heroes in their own community, as well as how they too could be heroes. in this book, you will find research by the amazing 2nd and 3rd grade heroes at IBA on what, who, and where heroes are—as well as how you can be a hero, too!


The program included rigorous academic instruction, but it also provided students with a new lens through which to observe the world around them. This book was accepted into the Boston Public Library’s permanent collection on August 7, 2015 and will serve as a resource for young explorers for years to come.


For more information on IBA's programs, visit www.ibaboston.org