Stories That Move Educates the ISA Community

Over the past several weeks, the ISA Stories That Move CAS club has undertaken the mission of educating the ISA community on several topics, from introducing a unit called ‘Mastering the Media’ to their peers in grade 7, to educating parents on why the language we use matters.

The CAS club was formed in 2015 when ISA was approached by the Anne Frank House to become a partner in developing the Stories That Move Toolbox, a free online tool which aims to educate students about diversity and discrimination, informed and guided by the real stories and experiences of young people today. Since then, ISA students have acted as passionate ambassadors for the Toolbox, working closely with the Anne Frank House to continually develop and improve the online materials, lead successful social media campaigns, represent the project at events and educate the ISA community.

In February of this year, the Stories that Move group ran a workshop for the parent community on ‘Why What We Say Matters’, focusing on themes of language, gender, identity and bias. Representatives from Anne Frank Huis were also in attendance to help answer questions.

The month of May has been a particularly busy time for the Stories That Move Group. They presented to grade 6 students about hate speech and also visited some grade 8 English classes to complement grade 8’s study of The Diary of Anne Frank.

Four grade 10 students from the club also presented to the whole of grade 7 to introduce a unit from Stories that Move called ‘Mastering the Media’. Earlier this year, Stories That Move students participated in a focus group run by the Anne Frank House to help them construct the new ‘Mastering the Media’ learning path for the online Toolbox. The pathway encourages learners to reflect on which media they use and how this might influence them, explore the concept of stereotypes in advertising and consider the relationship between stereotypes and prejudices.

After hearing that the grade 7 team was interested in expanding their Stories That Move homeroom curriculum, the Stories That Move club reached out with a proposal, believing that the new pathway is highly relevant to their peers in grade 7. Following the presentation, grade 7 will work through the ‘Mastering the Media’ pathway in their homeroom classes.

Developing Minds

ISA students have been involved with the Stories That Move project since the beginning, with several current grade 12 students engaged with the group since grade 8! The passion, commitment and leadership skills demonstrated by the Stories That Move group will undoubtedly serve them well in the future.