How many students, including adult
learners, need some extra help to communicate effectively in writing?
Across the United States, this number reaches into the millions.
a picture is worth... is a
unique book produced through collaboration between I-LEAD Charter
School in Reading, PA and Threshold Collaborative, a teaching,
consulting and capacity building organization. Reading has one of
the worst performing school systems in the nation. Students wrote and
recorded personal essays in a project that combined writing with
modern technologies to teach the vital skills of literacy, critical
thinking and communication.
The 16 students who contributed essays
used their skills in essays on school, family life and personal
struggles. The book includes links to audio recordings of the essays
and QR codes that allow access to the audio files on mobile devices
via QR reading apps.
a picture is worth… came out
of a partnership between two organizations. Threshold Collaborative
is a Vermont-based nonprofit and uses “story as a catalyst for
change.” In keeping with that, their projects revolve around
storytelling: Poets Shack, A Picture is Worth, Dreamcatcher, Local
Yarns, Conversations with Farm Women. I-LEAD School in Reading
provides 9th through 12th grade students who are disconnected from
school with the opportunity to re-engage in their education and
transition successfully into adulthood.
Thinking Creatively About The
Program:
That long lead-in was necessary in
order to clarify the program elements. Now that the key parts of the
program are clear, creative social innovators can play with them to
create new programs or to target new groups with the same needs.
The elements of a picture is
worth...—literacy training, at-risk or struggling students, new
technology and training in critical thinking—can work in other
settings and for other education goals. Creative thinking can reveal
many ways to adapt or modify each of those elements to create new,
yet related, education programs.
Variations Of The Program:
The easiest way to adapt that program
is to simply imagine it being used in other school systems. Could
high school students in another school system benefit from this
curriculum? Of course. Students in many other school systems perform
well below expectations in various ways. Reading, PA is not unique in
this regard.
The logic of this education program
could be extended to other audiences or other types of technology:
- Could there be a photography project where students produce and share photo essays of their families and neighborhoods? Someone has probably done that.
- Could the essay project be used in another context, like a juvenile detention facility or in a literacy program for adults? Perhaps so.
- Everything described here, and in a picture is worth... could be used overseas as well to signify the unifying power of storytelling. Of course the curriculum materials would need to be modified.
Social entrepreneurs, teachers and
nonprofit executives in the field of education might be able to use
the a picture is worth...curriculum, or just the program idea.
In a school setting, Threshold Collaborative and I-LEAD have
resources to help out. Adapting a similar program to another setting
or audience might take more work but could be worth the effort.
This post, then, illustrates two basic
elements of creative thinking: (1) be willing to steal ideas and (2)
be willing to transform an idea, including both adding or dropping
elements. The a picture is worth... program could be adopted
at another school, or used with photography or with group blogging
instead of personal essays.
(Visit www.apictureisworth.org
for more information on this program, plus some photographs, audio
files and other resources.)
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