From Brooks To Books by Will Switzer

Purpose Statement

To create and foster discussion of water issues within Senior Years and Early Years students through the accessible lens of a children’s story.

Project Summary

This project focuses on creating the framework of an English Language Arts unit that addresses water issues either locally, provincially, or globally. Students will start the unit off by learning about the basic concepts of water issues, with a focus on Shoal Lake 40 as an example of a water issue that garnered national attention. The next step will have students focusing on water issues that they have selected, either independently or from a curated list provided by their teacher. Students will be invited to create some form of depiction of the water issue, with examples including but not limited to informative essay, podcast, or presentations. Within this study project, the goal will be for students to learn about

issues that they were not aware of or considered. Once this project is completed, it will be set on the shelf while students move on to the next step, learning about children’s literature.

In this next section, students will be having an in-depth look on the history of children’s literature. This deep dive will include looking at the historical context of children’s literature, the different mediums used, and how literature has been used to teach lessons and morals taught within a society. Students will be asked to engage with this concept by bringing stories and books from their own childhoods that hold meaning to them, with a discussion being held on how different stories can elicit many emotions and reactions from the different contexts of readers. Once this step is finished, students will be asked to combine the two steps into one, by creating their own children’s book regarding their own water issue.

With this final step, the hope is for Senior Years students to create their own children’s book to display and share their chosen water issue from earlier. The book itself can be created in a variety of ways: students can write their books in a poetic way, an informative way, or some other form. For the pictures involved with the book, students can either create their own images, or find images under Creative Commons licensing to supplement their words. Once students have completed their works, they will be asked to share their book with students from an Early Years program, to impart the knowledge and wisdom that the Senior Years students have gleaned from the process. In doing this, the hope is to foster a sense of community, whether that be local or global, within both sets of students.