In 2017, Lynn Ditchfield set out to create the book she always wished she had as a teacher. Six years, 54 lesson plans and almost 300 pages later, she’s done it.
Borders to Bridges: Arts-Based Curriculum for Social Justice is a collection of lesson plans to help educators engage students with critical issues, which Ms. Ditchfield, a teacher herself for more than 50 years, believes to be an important part of a teacher’s mission.
“These challenges provide opportunities for educators to engage in dialogue about the critical issues that touch our daily lives and community,” she said.
Released earlier this year, the book was the product of input from people in more than 35 countries and 20 states. On Saturday, the West Tisbury Library hosted a book launch party to introduce it to the Island community.
Ms. Ditchfield was the driving force behind compiling the book’s content. The other two primary contributors to the project were Janice Frame, the artistic director, and Camila Fernández, the web consultant and designer.
Ms. Frame, who also created the book’s cover art, is a longtime teacher herself and joined in the creation of the project in 2019.
“You’ve got to figure out how to use this book and how valuable it is — my husband refers to it as a little chest of gold,” she said at the event.
Borders to Bridges offers activities to generate dialogue and understanding through different creative mediums, including role play, creative writing, visual art and dance, among others, all meant to be used anywhere from kindergarten classrooms to graduate courses and beyond.
Together, Ms. Frame and Ms. Ditchfield created a pilot program for the draft curriculum in collaboration with schools, the YMCA and the Boys and Girls Club on Martha’s Vineyard. It has also been used outside of the classroom.
One of Ms. Ditchfield’s friends in Istanbul, Turkey, teaches business courses and used some of the book’s mindfulness lessons in her graduate courses. Others have noted how the book can help parents engage their kids about social issues.
“And then a friend of mine, who was a law professor said, ‘Oh, I wish I had had this in my law classes,’” Ms. Ditchfield said. “So it’s not just for little ones or big ones.
At Saturday’s event, attendees included friends and many contributors to the project. Janet Holladay, who designed the book, said it was an inspiring project to work on because of the variety of perspectives it includes.
“I made sidebars and I made edges and embedded all the artwork, and I did all those things to make the words come alive,” Ms. Holladay said.
The book’s interactive components are supplemented by a website (borderstobridges.org) that contains more resources for educators, and will continue to be updated so the curriculum doesn’t lose relevance.
The website was created by Matthew Fisher, once a student of Ms. Ditchfield’s at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School. It also offers teacher guides, videos and other downloadable resources that can add to what is found in the book.
The whole project is an outgrowth of Ms. Ditchfield’s long teaching career, she said. Some of the lessons come from each of the settings she has taught in — from feminist acting workshops, adult education programs, children’s theatre performances and graduate courses.
“I just, as an educator, want to give back to my community and give something for teachers to work with to say, don’t shy away from this,” she said. “We need to really open up a dialogue.”
The book is in circulation at local libraries, and available for purchase bookstores and online.
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