Project Description
Monique Durso, Alyson Goodner and Brooke Giles will collaborate to create a pop-up book to be read by children, families, and the larger Quaker community. The pop-up book will be a modern resource and focus on the essential Quaker belief, "There is that of God in Everyone," as well as the common Quaker testimonies, or SPICES: Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community, Equality, and Stewardship/Service. This project will be focused on the first goal from the Strategic Plan, Quakerism: Deepen our identity and actions as a Friends school — and our students’ understanding of Quaker values — to prepare our graduates to live lives that make a difference.
While the the pop-up book is the end product, the work this summer will also include the process. Monique and Alyson will plan and reflect on a collaborative, cross-divisional course on Quaker studies for 2nd and 10th graders taught by Monique Durso and Alyson Goodner, respectively. This course will focus on the students'' side by side exploration of the Quaker testimonies, as well as key skills and competencies connected to the Penn Charter vision (Educate students to live lives that make a difference), such as empathy, active listening, problem solving and collaboration.
Brooke Giles, the Penn Charter Pre-K Studio teacher, will lead on the final illustration of the pop-up book. She will have student art to pull from (see below), as well as her own creations. We also aim to have two Penn Charter high school students (juniors or seniors who have taken the Quaker Principles and Practice course) join us as interns to provide their insights as reflective students and to work on the engineering, art and math components of the project. We envision the book having circuits for an LED light page and multiple opportunities for math and measurement within the design pop-up pages. With this VITAL Grant, the final pop-up book will be created in the IdeaLab, with the assistance of Corey Kilbane.
Monique Durso (2nd grade teacher) and Aly Goodner (10th grade teacher & Director of Center for Public Purpose) taught a cross-divisional course surrounding Quaker values and testimonies in the Spring 2017. We met and planned out overarching goals and enduring understandings for this symbiotic class partnership. From the lessons, activities and student centered discussions, we will discover the students'' interpretations and understanding of the Quaker testimonies and ideally will incorporate their voices into the pop-up book.
Project Results
An interactive children's pop-up book entitled, My Bright Light, authored by Monique Durso with original watercolor illustrations by Brooke Giles, was created. The book was created on Penn Charter's campus in the classroom and the Upper School IdeaLab. Four current Penn Charter student interns: Julia Lynch, Zion Weeks, Leila Sor, and Annika Murray worked closely with Brooke, Monique, and Aly Goodner to physically create the book in June of 2017. Here are some pictures of the process.