FAIR HAVEN - Seventh-graders at Knollwood School learned more than just reading and writing in their language arts class this year.

Students worked on a yearlong social action project of their choice in an effort to use their voices tomake a difference in the real world.

"I really wanted themto know that their words have power to change," said language arts teacher Gabrielle Illiano last week.

As part of the seventh-grade curriculum, students were asked to consider a subject matter that is important to them and use their words to effect positive change, Illiano explained.

"Part of the requirement is to try to get their words out there," she said. "Some will go and speak before the school board, mayor and council."

Other students would become involved in organizations such as Life Straw, which sends water-purifying straws to people in Africa who would otherwise have nomeans of filtering water.

Jennifer Maloney chose to collect blankets, sheets and pillows for homeless people in Monmouth County.

"The items that I collect will be donated to Interfaith Neighbors in Asbury Park and Spring House in Eatontown," Maloney wrote last week.

In an article explaining her project, Maloney wrote about the importance of the comfort and warmth that blankets can provide for the less fortunate.

"The purpose of the project at hand is to collect blankets, sheets and pillows, and deliver them to people in our area," Maloney writes. "The role that Interfaith Neighbors and Spring House will be playing in this is the distribution. It is our job and responsibility to collect these blankets. There are 700,000 to 2 million homeless people currently in the U.S. It is our duty to try to help these people. By supplying them with simple forms of comfort, we are giving them something to love. Simple everyday things mean the world to someone who doesn't have them."

She urges people to donate blankets, sheets and pillows to the two institutions in an effort to change someone's outlook and perhaps make their life a little better.

"It's important to note that a lot of what they do is really independent," Illiano said, adding that she gives students free rein in choosing their subject matter.

Such an open-ended project can sometimes be a bit daunting for seventhgraders, Illiano explained. Part of the process is working through roadblocks and sometimes narrowing the focus into a workable idea.

"I ask them to plan out a project and give me a general idea as to what the issue is," she said. "Then they try to use their work to effect change."

While some students choose to embark on projects to collect money or items in their chosen area, Illiano said the stress is on writing.

"Some will give me a number of e-mails that they have sent," she said. "We also have a literary magazine at school as a publishing resource. Any writing should be persuasive enough to convince the person that they are talking to."

E-mails and all other writing are submitted as part of the project, Illiano said.

Students Laura Courchesne and Chandler Shaeffer wrote an editorial to raise awareness on the subject of genocide, an issue that they found many of their classmates to be unaware of.

The message is that genocide continues to occur in the world today, and that everyone should be aware of it and try to educate others and make a difference.

"We wrote this to let you know just what's happening outside of our country," the girls write. "To tell you about the atrocities of genocide and that you need to help these people. No one should suffer because of the ignorance or fears of another. We shouldn't repeat our mistakes by allowing this to become another Holocaust."

Big or small, the project allows students to take a creative rein in choosing a subject to write about, or even a person to write to, according to Illiano.

Some students chose to write letters to family members who had battled cancer to let them know that they were role models for them and have a simple, but significant impact on one person's day.

"Some of them are ongoing," Illiano said. "One of their options this year was that the Fair Haven Education Association funded a grant."

The grant provided another opportunity for students, funding a project for two girls to start an environmental club next year, according to Illiano.

Carrying the work on outside of the classroom may be one of the most important lessons for students, who will go into the summer knowing that theirwords or actions have the power to make a difference.