Fifty four Navy ships call San Diego home and more than 100,000 active duty military personnel live in San Diego County. That means there are a lot of children in San Diego schools and neighborhoods whose parents are in the military and may be deployed. Fourth grade teacher Briony Chown designed a project that enabled her students to develop empathy for children whose parents are absent and use their skills to create something to help.
Students interviewed younger children (second grade) and parents in a neighboring school located next to military housing in order to create a “story cushion” — a pillow with voice recorded chips so that children could listen to their parent’s voice whenever they wanted.
This project was featured in the 2021 book Changing the Subject: Twenty Years of Projects from High Tech High. You can learn more about the book and the projects within by visiting the official website.
In addition, Briony hoped this project would enage her students in considering the following questions:
How are memories and stories important in our lives? What makes a successful interview? How can we write and deliver a speech that connects with our audience? How can we raise money for something we care about? What is a budget and how do we manage it? What is the role of the military in San Diego? How can we use writing to remember events and better understand our feelings and questions?
To launch the project, Briony invited members of the military and one of their daughters in to talk about their jobs and families and how it felt when a family member was deployed. To practice the idea of the “story cushion,” students interviewed their own parents and made prototype recordings and pillows. The class estimated what supplies they would need to create the cushions and developed a budget. Periodically they revisited their budget to check whether they were staying within it. Students brainstormed interview questions and how to make their younger buddies comfortable. After several visits, they held an evening event wherein they could interview and record their parents. In the final leg of the project, they completed their story cushions, planned their exhibition/celebration with their buddies, and exhibited their work.
Throughout the project, pairs of students wrote blog posts about each phase of the project (and commented on each other’s posts) which encouraged reflection and documented the project process for students and families.
Throughout the project, there were many elements which provided opportunities for assessment: reflection journals, critique sessions, interview questions, fundraising letters, and blog posts.
Students planned and held a celebration with their second grade buddies, where they presented their story cushions, as well as letters describing their process of making the cushion. They also held an exhibition at their own school for families and other students to show their pillows, writings, and process.