This month’s blog post highlights a year-long project by an Ohio educator and their students, resulting in a published book of diverse student memoirs. Whether you’d like to replicate the project in detail or take inspiration from it, read on for a how-to guide on amplifying student voices. Special thanks to Sr. Pablo Chignolli, M.Ed. at Westerville Central High School for collaborating on this blog post. Be sure to check out THE ONES AMONG US.
Step One: Define Your Goals
In the earliest stages of developing your project, define your goals. How do you want to elevate your students’ voices? What audience do you hope to reach? What message do you want to share with that audience?
In Chignolli’s case, his project aimed to provide diverse students with a chance to share their voices. He hoped teachers and educational leaders everywhere would reflect on the importance of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, looking to these narratives when discussing and making decisions that impact diverse students’ academic experiences. Even though all students who wrote memoirs attend Westerville Central High School, the book intends to provide a look at the experiences of diverse high schoolers across the United States.
Step Two: Make a Plan & Find Collaborators
As you map out your plan for the project, keep your eyes peeled for opportunities to invite community members to join you. Finding collaborators willing to lend their support is essential to the success of your project. Three key collaborators to seek out? Funding partners, colleagues and community partners.
Since this project was about people, Chignolli wanted this to be an opportunity for different members of the community to collaborate, share their experiences, and connect with each other.
- FUNDING: This project was made possible thanks to a grant provided by the Westerville Educators Foundation (WEF).
- COLLEAGUES:
- After obtaining support from WEF, Chignolli invited his colleague, Deb Jones, an ESOL teacher, to collaborate with him. Bringing in the expertise, passion and dedication of a colleague allowed the project to flourish.
- COMMUNITY PARTNERS:
- Chignolli reached out to individuals in the community and found generous collaborators at nearby Otterbein University’s Department of Art and Art History, including Louise Captein, Associate Professor of Painting and Drawing.
Step Three: Invite Students to Join & Get to Work
As you consider which students might participate in this project, allow your selection criteria and invitations to be shaped by your goals, while also taking into consideration any ways you may need to adapt your plan. For example, take into consideration how you might find a diverse sampling of your student population. You will also need to consider when and how students will take part in the project. Is this an extracurricular or classroom activity? Will any students need extra support? Once your students have been selected, provide them with a clear invitation to the project and project expectations.
Keeping in mind the goals for the project, Chignolli and Jones carefully looked at the student population in their central Ohio school. The criteria for student selection were based on gender, culture, ethnicity, and place of origin.
Permission forms were collected from the students’ parents and guardians. Then, questions were created and given to students to assist them in the creation of their memoirs. Questions included where their parents are from, cultural heritage, life as a child, elementary school, moving to the United States, life as a student here, and their American Dream. In accordance with the goals of this project, the memoirs don’t look to showcase students’ writing skills but provide them with a platform to express their voices.
Simultaneously, ten Otterbein University art students painted portraits of half of the WCHS students, while an additional WCHS student was invited to photograph the second half of the student autobiographers.
Step Four: Editing & Pulling the Final Product Together
Once students have completed their memoirs, the sometimes tedious but significant work of editing begins. Ideally, a plan will have already been laid for editing, determining who, when and how the editing is completed.
For Chignolli, the editing process involved removing questions so that the answers formed a narrative, double-checking the use of transition words, looking for cohesive sentences and smooth transitions between paragraphs, and translating to English, Spanish, and Portuguese. During this process, all students continued to actively work to make corrections and engage with Chignolli and Jones to ensure that the narratives were accurate according to the accounts of the students.
Step Five: Share Your Hard Work!
After celebrating with your students and collaborators, be sure to share your work with others! This is an excellent opportunity to utilize community partnerships and help your students see the reach of their hard work.
Before its release, this book project was successfully presented at The Ohio State University at a Sociology of Immigration Class led by Doctor Danielle Schoon. Two weeks later, Professor Leila Vieira, Assistant Director for the Center for Latin American Studies at The Ohio State University, hosted the students who participated in this project at the Department of International Affairs. During this visit, the students participating in this project met Professor Leila Vieira and representatives from the Center for Latin American Studies, East Asian Studies Center, Center for Slavic-East European-Eurasian Studies, Center for African Studies, Center for Belonging and Social Change, Office of Academic Affairs, and International Admissions. They also met with students from The Ohio State University and shared their memoirs in Doctor Schoon’s class.
