In the first project of its kind for sixth-grade students in Carrie Stepek and Lisa Kimberly’s ELA classes at Woodbury Middle School, students created Audio Museum exhibits on the voices of Native American Boarding Schools.

In March, students began reading Two Roads, a middle-grade historical fiction novel about the Depression-era government-run boarding schools for Native Americans. For this Audio Museum project, students selected a text - poems, songs, journal entries, personal narratives, etc -- written by survivors of these boarding schools.

Sixth graders wrote a preface and a reflection on their text choice and recorded their readings. They also recorded themselves reading an excerpt from a letter from a main character in Two Roads. They designed their own Audio Museums and welcomed classmates and special guests to hear these powerful stories. Students were creative in putting the finishing visual touches on their audio projects. Some created gallery welcome pages on their Chromebooks, others brought in historical items to display at their desk, and others even dressed the part of museum curator.