FLORY PUPILS TAKE TURNS BROADCASTING.

Byline: Rachel Uranga Staff Writer

MOORPARK - The second that Classroom 13 hits the airwaves, Flory Elementary School students, teachers and administrators fall silent to listen.

The 20-minute broadcasts, produced twice a month by 30 fifth-graders from Terry Boysen's classroom, have featured pieces ranging from a first-person account of a harrowing Simi Valley Fire evacuation to step- by-step instructions on how to create a Halloween goblin.

The show beams into dozens of the school's classrooms over low-frequency signal KFLR-FM (89.7), and broadcasts create a buzz that resonate on the playground. ``When you are on the radio, it's like 'wow,''' declared 10-year-old Madison Folsom. ``This is so cool. The radio makes you get more attention.''

And in a time when rigid state-mandated achievement standards leave little room for arts in classrooms, the student radio broadcasts also encourage critical English skills and creativity, backers said.

``I didn't like writing,'' Madison conceded. ``Now, I like writing. It's made me feel I want to write more; you want to achieve more.'' ``They love it,'' agreed Wendy Block, a fourth-grade teacher awed by the power of the medium to both enthrall and motivate Flory students.

Boysen, a self-confessed radio amateur, began the project two months ago, inspired by her techie son, 13-year-old Hans, who put together the transmitter, booster, antenna and microphone that sits on a classroom corner table and antenna that hangs outside.

``It's a confidence booster,'' she said. ``They feel like they are part of a bigger world, that there is power in their words.''

Similar programs, like the decade-old Youth Radio, a Berkeley-based program geared to developing nationally syndicated, youth-produced radio commentary, interviews and shows, also try to boost brain power.

Lissa Soep, a news producer and education director at Youth Radio, said it's been successful in Berkeley. While there's no promise that Boysen's radio show will boost test scores in Moorpark, if done right, it will improve critical-thinking skills, Soep said.

``The educational value can be tremendous,'' she said.

The expression, writing, deadlines and critiques help children develop key academic strengths, such as reflection and complicated language skills, backers said.

Since the start of the KFLR broadcasts, student interest in narrative writing - a key component of the program - has jumped, teachers said. Students who had little interest in current events or writing now are rewriting and practicing their stories with the hope they will be used on the air.

``They get really excited to write,'' Boysen said. ``It's not like when I just say do it for a grade. That's no incentive.''

``Some students respond to the oral, visual, some need hands-on work,'' she said. ``Sometimes I think hearing their voice helps a lot of the kids.''

Boysen wants to expand the radio program to other classrooms, but she said some teachers, already overwhelmed by the mandate to integrate state standards into the curriculum, are reluctant.

Kids, though, have little ambivalence.

Geovani Ponce, 10, sits up straight when talking about the station.

``I never thought I would ever be on the radio or in the newspaper,'' he explained. ``I like talking about important stuff. The wildfires, I was talking about how many people it hurt.''

``Yes,'' chimed in Veronica Sichmeller, 10: ``All the school gets to hear you.''

Rachel Uranga, [phone]

rachel.uranga(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

(color) As Karli Reynolds surpresses a giggle, fifth-grader Manuel Almanza reads a story over the air in Terry Boysen's class.

Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News