Sunrise magazine
From 1993 to 2003, EPI ran a literary magazine, Sunrise. The mission of Sunrise was to give EPI students an opportunity to share creative writings with each other across levels. Copies of the magazine were also mailed to students' sponsors.
My work with Sunrise as coordinator and editor-in-chief eventually led me to the idea that the magazine might serve instructional purposes as well. Sunrise articles, I figured, could be used as high-interest student-generated materials even after the students who wrote and read them had moved on from EPI.
I began to test that idea in my RV classes, levels 2-5. I used Sunrise as a resource for in-class activities and extensive reading outside class. I found that Sunrise articles were particularly useful in pair and small group settings for oral retelling practice and follow-up discussion. My students enjoyed working with Sunrise materials and learned a lot of English in the process. In my course evaluations, students often commented that the work we did with Sunrise was especially beneficial to them.
Preceding the links to Sunrise issues on this page is a link to the question "What can you do with Sunrise?" Click on that link and you'll find a sampler of a few ways I used Sunrise articles to involve students in oral and written retelling, summarizing, vocabulary, and discussion activities. I suggest that RV teachers -- low-to-mid-level RV teachers, in particular -- try using Sunrise materials occasionally and then submit their own responses to the question "What can you do with Sunrise?" to the RV coordinator, who might then have those responses added to this section. Based on teachers' reported experience using particular articles, the RV coordinator might also consider tagging articles for specific levels so that the same articles and related assignments don't get repeated at different levels.
Dick Holmes, retired EPI teacher and coordinator of Sunrise magazine
For copies of the Sunrise magazine contact us at:
Phone: 803-777-3867
E-mail: epi-info@epi.sc.edu