Assignment #4: Lighter Load

1. Assignment #4: Lighter Load Team Strengths-Based Learning

2. Anne Boswell, Director of Athena Academy “Most of these kids come in 4th, 5th, 6th grade, and they are just broken and beaten down… with zero self esteem... We talk about the invisible backpack - they all kind of come on campus with stuff stuffed in there. We help them pull it out... We're really about like, let's get that anxiety down. Let's get that self esteem up. Let's get the hoods off. We really start to help them own the dyslexia, own some of the accommodations...”

3. Ava Mracek, Athena student Getting pulled out of class caused Ava to: • Fall behind on classwork • Feel embarrassed for leaving class • Underperform academically because no one knew how to support her dyslexic and ADHD Ava loves Athena because: • She’s learned to self-advocate for her needs • Social Emotional Learning (SEL) has helped her articulate emotions • Frequent breaks and transitions help her workflow tremendously

4. Micah Galton, First-year Stanford Student Quotes from his college essay that he shared with us: “In elementary school, I was worse at reading, handwriting, & spelling than other kids. My 4th grade teacher called my handwriting ‘Chinese chicken scratch.’ One day, I put my head down and sobbed... I continued through elementary school repeating the mantra ‘I am stupid.’” “Another round of snickers ripples through my 10th grade English class. I stagger through my remaining lines, relief washing over me when I finish.”

5. Power of Storytelling Study: www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042811027662 • Examined the efficacy of narrative therapy and storytelling in reducing reading errors of dyslexic children • 30 dyslexic 1st to 3rd graders identified as dyslexia • Experimental group told stories with flannel and felt on a felt board • RESULTS • Controlling for the intelligence variable, the application of narrative therapy accounted for a 60% reduction in reading errors

6. Value Proposition: Unpack the backpack. Helping students with dyslexia understand their experience together.

7. Problem Statement Students with dyslexia often feel isolated and left behind in traditional classroom settings, and their families usually lack access to the individualized and project-based learning strategies that are offered in private school. We want to leverage the power of storytelling and visualization to connect students with dyslexia on a virtual platform so that they can share and reflect upon their collective experiences with a supportive community.

8. Three Tasks • Create a story about your experience • Simple • Share your story, and send and receive positive feedback • Medium • Discover other stories and characters that you connect with • Complex

9. Video Storyboards

10. Notes • Students can create their own storylines and include drawings of their own • They can also create and share characters for others to use in their stories • Some stories are fill in the blank while others are just create your own • Day-to-day check in like a digital diary • Drawing from the Social Emotional Learning and Changemakers initiatives at Athena Academy that are not available to everyone • Also draws from the “invisible backpacks” that students with dyslexia are burdened with in traditional classroom settings