TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) teacher Alicia Vanborssum allows her Northwood Elementary School students to touch a bundle of twigs in the reading of "The Three Pigs." Vanborssum recently presented at the International TESOL Conference in Baltimore on "Using Realia in Content Areas." "Realia is a TESOL word for real objects," Vanborssum said, who has worked to collect assemblages of artifacts and other non-print texts to extend students' literacy development. Northwood School social studies students in grades three and four now study Native American, Colonial/Revolutionary, and Erie Canal Industrial collections of artifacts, many of which contain high quality replicas made by artists. Students have created exhibit catalogues to go along with their use of these artifacts which includes Iroquois horn rattles, bone harpoons, an elm bark ladle and a quill pouch. "Students are intrigued with the objects," Vanborssum said. "Information like this from non-print sources makes social studies more real for students. They begin to handle objects and talk about them. Often, they follow-up with diary entries. For students learning English, it is a way to stimulate language as students hold and talk about artifacts."