By Katie Marker
The seniors of Ms. McDaniel’s English 1100 class are
participating in an interesting new project called The Facing Project. This
project inspires writers to connect with people in the community and present
their stories to increase awareness for issues in the community. The project’s
aim is to make connections between humans, and share stories of “triumph and
tragedy, of loneliness and community, of hate and happiness, of deep depression
and lofty goals.” Wisdom between students is shared, helping them learn and prepare
their counterparts for departing to college by increasing social awareness.
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| Abby and Anders Skype with their partners at Milton-Union. |
The project began on March 8th, with the STEM seniors
researching the project and viewing example stories. They also practiced
interviewing techniques and drafted questions. The seniors from STEM went on to
interview seniors in the English class from Milton-Union High School, taking
turns as interviewer and interviewee. Methods of communication included Skype,
text messaging, and phone calls. “Some of the students have related this to a
game of telephone,” quotes Ms. McDaniel. “You're listening to someone else's
story and trying to tell it yourself, putting yourself in someone else's shoes
or looking at life from their perspective.” The interviews cover a variety of
topics and struggles, from college debt, and moving away from home, to LGBT community
harassment, social standing, and living with chronic illness. One of the
seniors, Hope Ezell, says that “compared to other projects I’ve done, this has
allowed me to use the most creativity. Previously I had been told what my topic
would be and choose a thesis, however in this project I was able to pick
whatever topic I wanted to discuss as long as it related to college life.” The
seniors will continue on to write and share their partner’s story, and it will
appear on the Facing Project website. Visit the website at http://facingproject.com/
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| Cheyenne uses her phone to Skype with her partner at Milton-Union. |
The Facing Project is a piece of a larger, multi-genre project
that will be taken on by the English 1100 seniors. After completing their story
for the Facing Project, they will choose a topic about college to research and
present, using multiple genres. Although they must present their topic in
narrative, persuasive, and informative form, they can use any genre they wish
to do so. Campaign speeches, myths, diary entries, and flyers are just a few
examples of the genres they’ve chosen to include. This project is meant to
answer the driving question: "How
can we help future seniors navigate the task of entering the university?" Presentations
are taking place around the school today and tomorrow as students share their
knowledge with both seniors and juniors.
