Purpose
Students investigate how stories from around the world illuminate the people, cultures, and experiences shaping our world, beginning with a Belonging Around the World Mixer and learning from immigrant and refugee community partners. Through multiple world literature texts, they analyze perspective, culture, and belonging while developing seminar, reflective writing, research, collaboration, and digital presentation skills. Reflection journals, partner check-ins, and warm-and-cool feedback guide revision of seminar preparation, writing, and evidence choices. Students lead an evidence-based seminar, assess their speaking and listening growth, and create a class anthology of reflections, seminar notes, and creative responses for the Our Community exhibition with families and community partners.
Learning goals
Students will analyze how world literature represents culture, identity, belonging, and perspective as they investigate how stories help us understand people and experiences worldwide. Beginning with the Belonging Around the World Mixer, students will connect texts with lived experiences shared by immigrant and refugee community partners and synthesize relevant print and multimedia research. Students will strengthen collaborative seminar, reflective writing, and digital presentation skills through journals, partner check-ins, and warm-and-cool feedback on preparation, evidence, and creative responses. Students will demonstrate growth by leading an evidence-based seminar, completing a speaking-and-listening self-assessment, and contributing revised work to a class anthology for the Our Community exhibition night.
Products
Students will create identity-and-belonging artifacts during the launch mixer, then develop seminar notes, reflective journal entries, and creative responses while examining culture and perspective across world literature and community-partner stories. After each text study, they will revise their writing, seminar preparation, and evidence choices using peer and teacher warm and cool feedback and insights from partner check-ins. Each student will lead a small-group seminar using textual evidence to discuss theme, culture, and perspective, then complete a self-assessment of growth in reading, writing, speaking, and listening. The class will curate these works into an anthology responding to the essential question and present it through digital media at the “Our Community” exhibition for families and local immigrant and refugee support partners.
Launch
Begin with a “Belonging Around the World Mixer,” where students rotate through interactive stations featuring brief world literature excerpts, maps, images, music, and identity prompts. At each station, students connect a text or artifact to culture, place, identity, or belonging through conversation or a short creative response, with the option to use imagined or text-based experiences rather than disclose personal information. Invite staff or volunteers from local immigrant and refugee support organizations to share lived-experience perspectives and answer student-generated questions. Close with a gallery walk and introduce the essential question: “How can stories from around the world help us understand the people, cultures, and experiences that shape our world?”
Exhibition
Host “Our Community” exhibition night for families and local immigrant and refugee support partners, featuring the class anthology of revised reflections, seminar notes, and creative responses. Students curate interactive stations on identity, culture, place, and belonging, using world literature evidence alongside audio, visual, or digital media to address the essential question. Small groups lead brief seminars on theme, culture, and perspective, while visitors respond with warm and cool feedback. Students conclude with partner check-ins and self-assessments using their reflection journals to describe growth in reading, writing, speaking, and listening.
