Grymes Memorial School
Orange, VA - March 2011
Fourth grade teacher Evelyn Chaleki showed her students the short film of Edith Kaphuka (13-year-old, Malawi) and had them compare and contrast their own lives to hers. The video was integrated into other classroom lessons on Malawi and correspondence with a Peace Corps pen-pal. The students created multi-media projects (see more of their Glogsters here) in their computer class to express what they learned. They noted comparisons such as, “Edith has a lot of trees where she lives” and “Edith carries a backpack like us and she also gets homework like we do.” Contrasts included, “Edith has a well and washes her feet in a stream” and “She makes her food over fire and does not have forks, spoons or knives”.
“They loved watching the videos of Edith and it really helped them to understand how her life is similar and different than their own in so many ways,” Evelyn said.
