Sharing Our Stories:  Threads Connecting Generations                
​By:  Eric Wilkinson

Project at a Glance : 
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According to Mark Twain, "History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes." During the Big Read, we’ll read excerpts from Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing. We’ll study Gyasi’s story structure (and other structures). Then, we’ll collect stories from previous generations and link them thematically to our own stories. Finally, we’ll explore genres and styles to find the best way to share those stories with our community. ​
       
Driving Question:

What threads connect the generations?           

Standards:

• Students will examine story structure and various mediums and genres in order to engage diverse audiences with their texts.

Team / Culture Building:

• New students will complete  this personality profile in order to build heterogeneous groups. I usually use the Values Cards to get teams thinking about what values they share and how they might manifest in their lives. They also create a name for their team and establish norms. They document these and create a flag to display them on their notebooks that are used exclusively for this project.​

Entry Event:

• Students will try something like AI Time Machine to imagine themselves in different eras. 
• Connect with Hope Academy of Senior Professionals (HASP).

Stakeholders:

• HASP via The Big Read. Use the same personality profile that to build teams to match teams with seniors.

Empathy Building:

• Students will use the Bug Lists to help  think about stories we might want to tell. Exploring our own stories of triumph and adversity might help us develop questions we want to ask during our interview. Maybe some kind of MindMapping or flowchart for our interview topics.​

Inquiry / Need to Knows:

• Possibly use MothEDU for insights into story structure.
• After our first interview, we’ll use Bracketology to choose stories to tell and look for connections between students’ stories and seniors’. Set up  a second meeting with seniors to ask follow-up questions and seek clarification.

Incubation:

• Explore mentor texts. How can we tell stories? Moth Radio Hour, vignettes, poems, podcasts, digital storytelling, screenplay, dramatic reenactment, etc. What’s the best way to tell a story to our audience?
• Idea Quota protocol

Checking in:

• Writing conferences throughout. Second trip to senior center will give the stakeholders (and audience) a chance to check-in. 
• Elevator Pitch ​using the Netflix template, and create a trailer/promo for the story.

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Solution Building:

• Get advice from Kutsche Office of Local History. Ask the English Creative Writing class for podcasting advice.
• Poster advertising solution idea, followed by Dot Voting.​

• Bracketology
• Filtering Objectives for Stakeholders
• Where’s the love? protocol

Critique and Revision: 

• Elevator Pitch
• During the writing phase, students will be in touch with HASP for critique and revision feedback. Maybe even virtual meetings. I like, I wish, I wonder…

Authentic Audience:

• HASP and family members​

Final Presentation:

• Students chose how to share their stories for the final presentation.

Click here for teacher's full plan.

​Reflection and Feedback:

• ​Single point rubric
• FAST Rubrics
• At the final celebration, students will share stories with HASP and possibly with the Big Read.

• Student Reflections
• ​"Homegoing is an interesting book and I love its story line. Senior Citizen interview was a wonderful experience! I got to learn a lot about a person and what they went through and how they overcome it to be the person that they are today."  ~ West Ottawa HS Student
• "I really liked being able to talk to the Senior and get to know her more and hear her experiences and lessons."  ~ West Ottawa HS Student​
  

Click here for the teacher's Journey through PBL on Padlet . . .

Meet the Educator:

​Eric Wilkinson teaches English (and sometimes Math) at West Ottawa High School in Holland, MI. 
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     "PBL gives students agency and purpose. They care more about their work because it affects their real world."