Learning Experiences Bank
“Mirror/Echo/Tilt is a project created by artists (Melanie Crean, Shaun Leonardo, and Sable E. Smith) in collaboration with people who are court-involved, formerly incarcerated, or otherwise affected by the criminal justice system. Through a curriculum based on visual storytelling, participants translate personal narratives into performance in order to replace a culturally embedded conception of Black criminality with new language so that the mind and body may think, feel, and move in a way not defined by their previous experience with incarceration.”
One of the exercises, Minimal Gesture (How to Abandon Words) uses physical movement in order to convey particular emotional narratives. While this may cultivate discomfort, the curriculum provides spaces for participants to engage in social emotional learning practices while putting issues of systemic racism at the forefront. This way, the social emotional learning experience engages beyond the surface of general feelings.
*photo credit: Melanie Crean
Visualization
Visualization is an exercise created by renown social justice education scholar and spoken word artist Dr. Jamila Lyiscott. In her 2019 book, Black Appetite. White Food, Dr. Lyiscott stresses that social justice requires personal wellness. Therefore, educators must be committed to excavating their own emotional existence and work through pain and discomfort in order to fight systemic injustice. Her Visualization Exercise asks participants to face that discomfort head on in order to deepen pedagogical practice.
CASEL Discussion Questions
The following resource is a list of discussion questions/writing prompts adapted from the CASEL worksheet titled Give 1/Get 8 Self Care Activities.
IES Curriculum
IES (Intellectual, Emotional, & Spiritual) is a professional development curriculum designed by Kathryn Endler that aims to generate love, care, and solidarity among educators by incorporating more personal and emotional intelligences into academic spaces.