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Developing Empathy Through Storytelling

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After interviewing a community member who has endured hardship, high school students practice their ELA skills—and their empathy—to turn it into a public performance.

As a part of the EL Education network, Casco Bay High School in Portland, Maine strives to make work meaningful and relevant to students. In longtime teacher Susan McCray’s 11th grade English Language Arts classroom, students strengthen their writing skills, tap into creativity, and develop a deep sense of empathy through a storytelling expedition. In this multi-step project, groups of four students interview people in the community who have shown strength in the face of hardship or injustice. Each group meets with its interviewee twice, honing in on stories of courage and resilience. They record both interview sessions, transcribe them, and then get to work to bring it to life on stage.

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#literacy #socialemotionallearning #englishlanguage #englishlanguageandliterature

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