Lori Wewel, Erica Walsh, and Hailey Worthy

The team’s innovative teaching idea, “My Heritage: A Book of Memories,” is to encourage and even require students to interview family members (parents, aunts/uncles, grandparents) about their heritage. Students will gather information and use that information to complete creative writing projects that can be compiled in a book to be shared with their families. They will write eight chapters from their own perspective or from an ancestor’s perspective, reflect on memories from their own lives, and explore family members from the past. Students will practice a variety of writing genres, including poetry, journaling, letter writing, narrative, essay, and report writing, and all chapters will be collected and made into a final scrapbook which is a bound keepsake for the student and his/her family. The team hopes the inquiry about the students’ family history will open discussions with their family and provide a true appreciation for understanding their family's past and taking pride in where they came from.