I am so excited to finally be able to share something that a group of us have been working on for over a year. If you have followed my work of this blog, then you know about a year ago we were fortunate enough to be asked to capture the life story of a woman who survived the Holocaust. We created a comic that has now been published and available online.
In addition to the final product, we as educators wanted to tell the story on how the work came to be. It can be hard to understand the deep levels of learning that occur in a project like this for educators looking for the day to day layers of making authentic work happen. In addition to the published comic we also created an education version of the comic that captures the thinking of the students for each panel of their creation.
And today we are excited to share the third element of our work. We have created an educator guidebook that is 80+ pages on how the educators
- developed the project in the beginning stages
- achieved proficiency in standards in several disciplines
- placed a focus on Universal Constructs and competencies
- created new methods of assessments like their Thinking Progression tools
- weaved experiences throughout a throughline focused on complexities of being human
- sustained inquiry through meaningful work, working with experts, and give students voice to feel empowered
- focused on the process and not the product to capture the learning journey.
Creating a learning experience that matters to the learner in both the short term and long term requires careful planning and hard work. It is important to establish a safe and welcoming learning environment that encourages students to explore inward, outward, and forward. This can be achieved by creating an atmosphere that is safe to ask questions, share ideas that might not work, and time to revise until the work feels ready for the world.
It is important to remember that establishing a learning experience like this will require hard work, effort, flexibility, and adapting when things don’t work or go according to plan. If you want to establish learning like this project you are about to explore, then you must be ready to work hard, have an open mind, work collaboratively, and begin a new journey that not only will open the eyes, minds, and hearts of your students but for you as well.
“To own this work we need to be brave. Having ownership over something can feel scary sometimes. It can make you feel pressured and overwhelmed, like any tiny mistake will mess up everything. You can feel responsible for anything, good or bad. Sometimes having that opportunity to have ownership and feel that way can be scary.”
We need to be able to grow comfortable in our individual work. Because ownership is also rewarding. You get to feel like you are valuable. You get the chance to say “I own this” and feel pride in what you’ve accomplished. When we focus on being empowered instead of scared, we might be able to move forward as a leader.
We would like to place in your digital hands an example of how cross-curricular elements can be woven into an authentic learning experience through creating a comic on the life of a Holocaust survivor to preserve stories that should never be forgotten . This project is a classroom example of how students can learn the power of what schools can provide them when learning is done right when everyone involved are co-owners of the work.
You can access everything here on our project site
And in case you are wondering, we are in the final stages of another powerful story that has completely opened our eyes to new ways of learning so maybe a follow up guide could come to be!
We would love to hear what you think about the work and how we might be able to support you in your journey.
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