This is My Story: Out of the Darkness

Educator: Alexa Toyas ENL

Other Participating Staff:

Maira Zavala, Bilingual SW

Keegan Bishop, Art Teacher

Diane Fox, Director of Bilingual and Alternative Education

Michael T. Carlson, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction

Teaching Artists: Kimberly Zambrano, Visual Arts and Miroslava Gonzalez, Documentary Film

School: Hampton Bays High School, Grades 9-12

District: Hampton Bays UFSD: https://data.nysed.gov/profile.php?instid=800000036818

October 17, 2023 – May 16, 2024

Summary: This partnership is founded on the belief that young people who have traveled to the US have powerful stories to share with advice for other people who are trying to make a home here. Students and teachers collaborated with a documentary artist and an art therapist to create a film that can be used to empower incoming students as well as teachers from other school districts to use their voices for change.

Rationale: My students face significant trauma which impedes their learning. This project gives them space to process these memories and celebrate their cultures, while learning important academic and SEL skills so that they can be successful in the classroom

What learning goals/standards did this meet?

Arts:

H -rate a collection of objects, artifacts, or artwork to affect the viewer’s understanding of social, cultural, and/or political experiences.
HS Advanced VA:Cr1.1.HSIII
Visualize and hypothesize to generate ideas and plans for creating art and design that can affect social change.
HS Advanced VA:Cr2.1.HSIII a. Experiment, plan, and make multiple works of art and design that explore a personally meaningful theme, idea, or concept.
HS Proficient VA:Cr2.3.HSI a. Develop a proposal and create sketches or a model for an installation, artwork, or space design that transforms the perception and experience of a particular place.
HS Advanced VA: Pr6. 1.HSIII a. Curate a collection of objects, artifacts, or artwork to affect the viewer’s understanding of social, cultural, and/or political experiences.

CCCR ELA Standards

Reading Anchor:

STANDARD 7: Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats.

Writing Anchors:

STANDARD 2: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.

STANDARD 3: Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective techniques, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.

Comprehension and Collaboration:

STANDARD 1: Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners; express ideas clearly and persuasively, and build on those of others.

Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas:

STANDARD 5: Make strategic use of digital media and visual displays to express information and enhance understanding of presentations.

Conventions of Academic English/Language for Learning:

STANDARD 1: Demonstrate command of the conventions of academic English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.

STANDARD 2: Demonstrate command of the conventions of academic English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

CR-S

This year we created a video, This is My Story: Out of the Darkness, of the students reading their migration stories and giving advice to newcomers. While this affirms my current students’ stories, next year it will be shown on the first day of school so that our newcomers will understand that they are welcome to share who they are with faculty and students.