Half a dozen middle schools are experimenting with an unusual approach to teaching new immigrants English: Children write stories about their own lives and read them out loud in front of an audience. The exercises builds confidence and, in some cases, serves as a catharsis for children dealing with trauma, as an article by Peter McDermott in Feet in Two Worlds shows.

One boy described what it was like to walk across the border from Mexico. He shook as he told the story, but was greeted with thunderous applause when he finished. A girl described the sorrow of losing her mother. A girl wrote a poem about a troubled man in Pakistan.

The program is part of a federally-funded Story Studio for the Urban Arts Project. Some 365 students took part in the 2010-2011 school year at MS 131 in Manhattan; IS 62, IS 281 and IS 223 in Brooklyn; and IS 145 in Queens, and the program will continue this year.