In New Rochelle, New York, a 24-hour daycare is a lifesaver for parents who work multiple jobs and odd hours to make ends meet. Through the stories of two working mothers and a childcare provider, Through the Night reveals the personal cost of rising wealth inequality in America and the close bonds forged between parents, children and caregivers.

A Note from Curriculum Creator, Vivett Dukes

The other day I drove past the daycare center that my four year old niece went to prior to the pandemic. It has since closed down. I couldn’t help but think about my own children’s introduction into child care and day care centers. You see, they didn’t have the upbringing that I did. Thanks to my grandmother who came to the United States from Jamaica, West Indies to help her only daughter and son-in-law raise my siblings and me while they strove to achieve the all-elusive “American Dream”. My children are the product of a single-mother household which meant that they were in day care centers from a very early age. As a matter of fact, I began my career as an educator teaching in one of their day care centers. I was so conflicted about leaving my children at the day care center that I would stick around for hours and hours to see what was going on there.

Subject Areas

• English Language Arts
• Social Science
• American History
• Civics

Grade Levels: 9th - 12th Grades

Objectives:

In this lesson, students will explore the intersection of gender inequality, racism and the constant economic precarity plaguing working class families. These intersections are both prevalent and simultaneously exhausting. Highlighted is the fact that women often bear the responsibility of raising children, are paid less than their male counterparts, and face unique socio-economic and racial challenges than other groups. They are trying to achieve the ubiquitously deceitful "American Dream" that serves as this myth by which people continue to erroneously be judged. While all of these key issues are discussed in Through The Night, at its’ core, this documentary seeks to convey the message that community care - particularly in marginalized communities - is rooted in love and the belief that “it takes a village to raise a child.”

In this lesson students will consider the following Essential Questions:

• How do radical community formations come together to support and nurture one another and one anothers’ children?
• Why is the rearing and nurturing of children historically and presently framed as “women’s work?”
• What is the perceived role of mother’s in our society?

Materials

• Computer
• WiFi
• Through The Night POV documentary
• Digital Presentation software (Slides/PPT/Prezi/Keynote)
• “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes.
• “Who Will Cry” by Antwone Fisher

Time Needed

Two (2) 50-60 minute class periods

In New Rochelle, New York, a 24-hour daycare is a lifesaver for parents who work multiple jobs and odd hours to make ends meet. Through the stories of two working mothers and a childcare provider, Through the Night reveals the personal cost of rising wealth inequality in America and the close bonds forged between parents, children and caregivers.

The first frames look like they could be our phones, our fidgeting and scrolling and typing, the texts to friends or family or acquaintances or bosses. A viewer may even wonder to themselves, why is this in a documentary; isn’t this just everyday life? Yes, it is. And as the episodes accumulate and build, and as Andy and Farrah emerge in their clips of FaceTime conversations, their texts, their own posts, the texture becomes more detailed, dense. The viewer begins to feel Farrah trying to create a place of home on the other side of the country from her parents and sibling. What is at first glimpses of Farrah’s professional worry, of her work at a queer performance cafe space, of a carefully labeled potluck spread coalesce into the traditions and actions that go into creating family and community in tandem with our biological kin. In Andy, we see the budding of a profession and a romance that are spaces of his own as he makes his own life in the place where he grew up. FaceTimeis an interactive documentary piece which follows the lives of two Taiwanese-American bicoastal siblings. The storytelling is subtle and more powerful for it: we do and can see ourselves in the collage of images and clips and soundbytes between Andy and Farrah. The film ends not with a momentous revelation or decision, but with quiet and significant shifts towards belonging and sense of self in both siblings on both sides of the country. On the way, the narrative arc tells a visual story of the many ways we create community and connect with chosen families.

Viewing “FaceTime” from this side of the COVID-19 pandemic imbues our viewing of those scenes with a certain longing: Did we ever stand that close and watch a live show together? Did we truly pile into a living room like that? The documentary begins to take on yet another dimension: a time capsule, an archival piece, that shows how we made family before the pandemic. In this context, it is a powerful time to study this film with students. Countless communities have had to make impossible decisions about how to support each other, who to live with, who to “pod up” with, who to date, who to eat a meal with...in other words, we’ve had to ask to whom do we choose to make ourselves vulnerable? This lesson does not explicitly examine COVID-living relationships (though it is a possible focus for an extension lesson), but in it’s invitation to students to consider the relationships in their lives, they have the opportunity to think deeply about their current moment. By the conclusion, they will have created their own post or series of posts telling the story of one important relationship in their lives. In the process, they will become archivists of their own present moment and see that the phones and apps they hold in their hand can be used to powerful effect.

The filmmaker Jackie! Zhou (she/they) is a Los Angeles-based artist who is keen on blurring the lines between formats and disciplines. From music videos to documentaries, her directorial work aims to explore and celebrate human experiences. Her sound design work has been Emmy nominated, and credits include Janelle Monáe’s Dirty Computer,HBO’s United Skates, and live work presented at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Jackie! especially thrives with collaborative projects that defy the standard borders of traditional formats. She believes good humans make great storytellers, and the students who take part in this lesson will have the chance to see themselves in the same light.

A Note from Curriculum Creator, Jade Sanchez-Ventura

I believe in personal narrative. I think that to communicate the particular experience of a life and to tie it literally or intuitively to the histories--familial, cultural, societal--that have shaped us is an act of resistance that also makes for excellent storytelling. This conviction is the underpinning of my work as an educator: No matter the subject, I know that every young person has a singular, vital perspective to bring and my role is to act as a catalyst for their bursts of insight and inspiration. Sometimes (too often) my role is to help students recognize the power of their own insight and intelligence. As with all systems of our society, the classroom can also be a site of profound oppression and silencing. As one mentor told me, “You want your students to leave a classroom not thinking that you’re smart, but that they are.” Often that entails reminding myself that with every generation there are new methods of making and communication emerging; reminding myself to ask students about what is present and relevant to their daily lives.

Smartphones and apps and social media often feel like the epitome of a generational divide. Phones are banned from classrooms (including my own, generally), social media is demonized (even though we all use it), or if not demonized, trivialized--regarded as a cultural arena for entertainment and play, but not for serious study and critique. However, many of us, and certainly most young people, are daily crafting intimate narratives about their own lives on those very phones. Any minute on Instagram is one crammed with countless Stories, Posts, Live broadcasts from our lives. Yes, the celebrities and politicians and gatekeepers are there too, but one can easily ignore them and follow only the interpretations and explorations of regular folks like us.

Much has been made of the information bubbles made possible by social media. Certainly that is an important conversation to have, but for the purpose of this lesson (and it’s partner lessons featuring the Otherly documentary series), we have the chance to interrogate the vast options for self-expression and self-chronicling afforded by social media, in particular Instagram. I am enchanted by the truism that the more focused and personal a story, the more broadly it appeals. There is a magic that happens when an artist tells one small story honestly-It becomes a big truth that resonates for countless others.

“FaceTime” is one of those stories. In this series of episodes that average six minutes apiece, an entire relationship is told. As a viewer, I felt as if I was a third party to Andy and Farrah’s texts and calls. I felt as I was watching them on my own phone, almost a participant. I also felt a longing for all my branches of community, many of whom I now only see outdoors and with masks on. But that longing felt well placed, a reminder that this creating of networks of kinship is a powerful and joyful act. By the conclusion of the series, both Andy and Farrah’s lives have shifted in subtle yet significant ways. The series and the tools involved remind us that these are the stories worth telling and that we can in fact tell them, and that we can choose to do so any time we post.

A Note on Technology and Accessibility:

This lesson, as well as the others in the Otherly series, bring social media into the classroom. These lessons are designed to integrate ethical engagement on social platforms to complete the assignments. It will be important for you to check with your school or district for any regulations around classroom or in-school student social media use. In addition, this lesson entails the creation of a class Instagram account. In order to set this up, the teacher will need to set up an IG account which will be shared only to the class, with a username and password that students can all access. That said, while some of the content and theory of the lessons would be lost without the use of social media, students could complete the assignments using the photo and video tools on their phones. However! The lessons are intended to critique, engage, and potentially transform the use of social media. If possible, the lesson will be most transformative as a social media-based engagement. And with enough planning, you and your learning community can create an analogue version of this lesson with printed-out photographs, storyboards on large paper in the classroom, and using school-based technology to record and play videos in school.

A Note to Teachers

This is intimate work that will ask students to take a leap of trust in each other and in you. Depending on where you are in your year and with your group, this may be a first flight or one that builds on the bond in an already tight knit class. And of course, you may be applying this to a group of students who have only ever met each other on a digital platform like Zoom. Wherever you are, I encourage you to have faith in yourself and your students to make this leap! However, there are preparations that will be necessary to keep this space safe, and therefore positive, for all. Before beginning, I strongly suggest you create community agreements with your group. Even if you already have these in place, this is a good moment to review. You can also adapt your class agreements to a set specific to this project. Here is a sample list of community agreements, and there are a wealth of resources online for how to create a set of agreements with your class. In addition, given that this lesson will involve the creation and shared usage of an Instagram account, it will be essential to create a set of agreements focused on how to use the app and the related technology in a respectful, inclusive manner. Though the time spent on these agreements might seem an aside to the curriculum itself, in fact those conversations will help create a shared trust that will facilitate powerful creative and academic learning.

Subject Areas

• Journalism
• Filmmaking/Visual Art
• English
• History
• Current Events
• Social Justice
• Sociology
• Psychology
• Health

Grade Levels:8-12

Objectives:

In this lesson, students will:

• Define family, “chosen” families, emergency contacts, isolation, marginalized communities.
• Explore the history of chosen families within marginalized, queer communities.
• Create a chosen family tree.
• Create a short film via posts, videos, texts that depicts a relationship with a member of their chosen family.

Materials:

• Film and equipment to project/screen the film.
• Physical or digital space for charting student discussions. (Whiteboards, chalkboards, poster paper, digital whiteboard, etc.)
• Note taking materials: Pen, pencils, paper, or relevant assistive technology for students who use electronic devices for note taking.
• Personal recording devices, one per student: Smartphones, laptops, tablets would all work.
• A private Instagram account created by the teacher for each class section; teacher and students share account admin capabilities through a shared username and password.
• Family Tree template
• Chosen Family Tree template
• Two articles and photo essays on chosen family in Queer communities:
  • https://www.wired.com/story/queer-chosen-families/
  • https://www.vice.com/en/article/7xgjp9/chosen-families-lgbtq-photos-queer-britain

Time Needed:

2-3 sixty minute sessions

FILM CLIPS

FaceTime is available in Instagram story highlights on the Otherly Instagram account page:

@otherlyseries.

"I just could not imagine a future in which I was being myself."

In this documentary Tristan Angieri brings the reader into their body and into a narrative of trauma and healing. Tristan tells of an anger at their own body, “for being queer, for being trans,” that comes to threaten their life. Their saving of their own life comes from a body-centered healing practice in the form of a groundbreaking therapy for PTSD. From that beginning, Tristan goes on to find sources of joy and recovery in other healthy and healing risks, also centered in their body. Social media and the public chronicling of self was one of the key components of journey. They posted videos of themselves dancing to social media, not with the intention of garnering a following, but as a self-revelatory act. They discovered that those moments of honest self-portrayal in turn helped others. Clips of those videos are interspersed through this documentary. Tristan Angieri is a non-binary multi-disciplinary artist, director and actor. Their streetwear is sold on the queer and trans design label Homogoods. In 2018, they released the EP Eccolocations as half of the artpop group Hairband Hairband. As Themperor, they are currently recording their debut album. Their multi-faceted, multi-genre approach to their work infuses this film, which includes music, narration, animation, personal archical videos and photos, and social media posts. It is a unified story told with a collage of tools.

This is a fitting time for their work and for this project. The news media is focused on the theme of cultural and political division in the U.S., and the realm of social media is often viewed as the hive of that division. This film (and this lesson) lives outside of that dominant framing and lives into the truths of the authors’ life. Instead, the film reminds us that social media can also be a platform for vulnerability, for self-revelation, for providing a counter narrative to those that would tell a very different story about what our bodies mean in the world.

This lesson will challenge students to examine the dynamic between their external and internal selves and to take on one contained (yet immense) transformative journey. It is introspective work but that concludes with a public, creative work. As Tristan did, students will document their own process and craft it into a contained post or series of posts shared to a class Instagram account. The lesson concludes with a celebratory screening.

A Note on Technology and Accessibility

This lesson, as well as the others in the Otherly series, bring social media into the classroom. These lessons are designed to integrate ethical engagement on social platforms to complete the assignments. It will be important for you to check with your school or district for any regulations around classroom or in-school student social media use. In addition, this lesson entails the creation of a class Instagram account. In order to set this up, the teacher will need to set up an IG account which will be shared only to the class, with a username and password that students can all access. That said, while some of the content and theory of the lessons would be lost without the use of social media, students could complete the assignments using the photo and video tools on their phones. However! The lessons are intended to critique, engage, and potentially transform the use of social media. If possible, the lesson will be most transformative as a social media-based engagement. And with enough planning, you and your learning community can create an analogue version of this lesson with printed-out photographs, storyboards on large paper in the classroom, and using school-based technology to record and play videos in school.

A Note from Curriculum Creator, Jade Sanchez-Ventura

I believe in personal narrative. I think that to communicate the particular experience of a life and to tie it literally or intuitively to the histories--familial, cultural, societal--that have shaped us is an act of resistance that also makes for excellent storytelling. This conviction is the underpinning of my work as an educator: No matter the subject, I know that every young person has a singular, vital perspective to bring and my role is to act as a catalyst for their bursts of insight and inspiration. Sometimes (too often) my role is to help students recognize the power of their own insight and intelligence. As with all systems of our society, the classroom can also be a site of profound oppression and silencing. As one mentor told me, “You want your students to leave a classroom not thinking that you’re smart, but that they are.” Often that entails reminding myself that with every generation there are new methods of making and communication emerging; reminding myself to ask students about what is present and relevant to their daily lives.

Smartphones and apps and social media often feel like the epitome of a generational divide. Phones are banned from classrooms (including my own, generally), social media is demonized (even though we all use it), or if not demonized, trivialized--regarded as a cultural arena for entertainment and play, but not for serious study and critique. However, many of us, and certainly most young people, are daily crafting intimate narratives about their own lives on those very phones. Any minute on Instagram is one crammed with countless Stories, Posts, Live broadcasts from our lives. Yes, the celebrities and politicians and gatekeepers are there too, but one can easily ignore them and follow only the interpretations and explorations of regular folks like us.

Much has been made of the information bubbles made possible by social media. Certainly that is an important conversation to have, but for the purpose of this lesson (and it’s partner lessons featuring the Otherly documentary series), we have the chance to interrogate the vast options for self-expression and self-chronicling afforded by social media, in particular Instagram. I am enchanted by the truism that the more focused and personal a story, the more broadly it appeals. There is a magic that happens when an artist tells one small story honestly-It becomes a big truth that resonates for countless others.

Integrate.Me is one of those stories. In under nine minutes, Tristan Angieri crafts an intricate and powerful story of trauma and healing facilitated by therapeutic support, but also by the deceptively simple act of posting videos of themselves dancing on Instagram.. Through the lens of Tristan’s film, this lesson will help students explore mental health and self-care as it shows up in their own lives, and to transform that exploration into a series of posts that tells a story about a personal process of self-care. It will challenge students to consider which truths they choose to share and in the process, to celebrate the power and vitality of their own perspective.

A Note to Teachers

This is intimate work that will ask students to take a leap of trust in each other and in you. Depending on where you are in your year and with your group, this may be a first flight or one that builds on the bond in an already tight knit class. And of course, you may be applying this to a group of students who have only ever met each other on a digital platform like Zoom. Wherever you are, I encourage you to have faith in yourself and your students to make this leap! However, there are preparations that will be necessary to keep this space safe, and therefore positive, for all. Before beginning, I strongly suggest you create community agreements with your group. Even if you already have these in place, this is a good moment to review. You can also adapt your class agreements to a set specific to this project. Here is a sample list of community agreements, and there are a wealth of resources online for how to create a set of agreements with your class. In addition, given that this lesson will involve the creation and shared usage of an Instagram account, it will be essential to create a set of agreements focused on how to use the app and the related technology in a respectful, inclusive manner. Though the time spent on these agreements might seem an aside to the curriculum itself, in fact those conversations will help create a shared trust that will facilitate powerful creative and academic learning.

Subject Areas

• Health
• English
• Social Justice
• History
• Psychology
• Sociology
• Filmmaking/Visual art
• Creative Writing
• Peer support
• Gender Studies

Grade Levels: 8-12
*The following program contains mentions of childhood trauma and suicide, which some viewers may find troubling. Viewer discretion is advised. If you're looking for someone to talk to here are two resources:

@trevorproject @suicidepreventionhotline

Please take care of yourself, support is here:

The TrevorLifeline 866. 488. 7386

24/7/365 crisis intervention and suicide prevention lifeline for LGBTQ young people.

Objectives:

In this lesson, students will:

• Explore and define mental health, self-care, and healthy risk.
• Explore the ways that gender socialization impacts our ability to take risk.
  • For more in-depth work on gender socialization, see the suggested “Extension”.
• Chart a road map to meet a personal self-care challenge.
• Design a series of social media posts that shares a reflection on a self-care process.

Materials

• Film and equipment to project/screen the film.
• Physical or digital space for charting student discussions. (Whiteboards, chalkboards, poster paper, digital whiteboard, etc.)
• Note taking materials: Pen, pencils, paper, or relevant assistive technology for students who use electronic devices for note taking.
• Personal recording devices, one per student: Smartphones, laptops, tablets would all work.
• A private Instagram account created by the teacher for each class section; teacher and students share account admin capabilities through a shared username and password.
• “What We See/What We Don’t” template.
• “Transformation Map” template.

Time Needed

1-4 sixty minute sessions, depending on degree of in-class sharing.

FILM CLIPS

Integrate.Me is available in Instagram story highlights on the Otherly Instagram account page:

@otherlyseries.

‍

It’s as if we’re right there with them: In their phones, their rooms, their conversations. It’s as if they’re our friends posting to their accounts, although this time our friends are posting exquisite narratives telling us truths about identity, family, belonging, healing. These three films: “Integrate.Me,” “Elaine is Almost,” and “FaceTime” all use the technology readily available to us in our devices to craft narratives that span both temporal and emotional journeys. The films are three of the seven that were selected from hundreds of submissions sent in to the an open call to women, non-binary and genderqueer storytellers of all artistic backgrounds by POV Spark and the National Film Board of Canada. They were charged with telling important stories that often go untold in mass media, while using Instagram in innovative ways.

This is a fitting time for their work and for this project. The news media is focused on the theme of cultural and political division in the U.S., and the realm of social media is often viewed as the hive of that division. These films (and this lesson) live outside of that dominant framing and live into the truths of their authors’ lives. Instead, the films remind us that social media can also be a platform for vulnerability, for self-revelation, for providing a counter narrative to those that would tell a very different story about what our bodies mean in the world.

This lesson invites and challenges students to place their own stories in relation to the shared stories of a larger community in a particular moment. In other words, they will explore the interrelation between their individual stories and “history;” and the nuances between the particular and universal. Following this comparative exploration they will use their analyses to craft a specific story with a given arc and from that outline create their own innovative Instagram post or series. Their work will conclude with a celebratory screening.

A Note on Technology and Accessibility:

This lesson, as well as the others in the Otherly series, bring social media into the classroom. These lessons are designed to integrate ethical engagement on social platforms to complete the assignments. It will be important for you to check with your school or district for any regulations around classroom or in-school student social media use. In addition, this lesson entails the creation of a class Instagram account. In order to set this up, the teacher will need to set up an IG account which will be shared only to the class, with a username and password that students can all access. That said, while some of the content and theory of the lessons would be lost without the use of social media, students could complete the assignments using the photo and video tools on their phones. However! The lessons are intended to critique, engage, and potentially transform the use of social media. If possible, the lesson will be most transformative as a social media-based engagement. And with enough planning, you and your learning community can create an analogue version of this lesson with printed-out photographs, storyboards on large paper in the classroom, and using school-based technology to record and play videos in school.

A Note from Curriculum Creator, Jade Sanchez-Ventura

I believe in personal narrative. I think that to communicate the particular experience of a life and to tie it literally or intuitively to the histories--familial, cultural, societal--that have shaped us is an act of resistance that also makes for excellent storytelling. This conviction is the underpinning of my work as an educator: No matter the subject, I know that every young person has a singular, vital perspective to bring and my role is to act as a catalyst for their bursts of insight and inspiration. Sometimes (too often) my role is to help students recognize the power of their own insight and intelligence. As with all systems of our society, the classroom can also be a site of profound oppression and silencing. As one mentor told me, “You want your students to leave a classroom not thinking that you’re smart, but that they are.” Often that entails reminding myself that with every generation there are new methods of making and communication emerging; reminding myself to ask students about what is present and relevant to their daily lives.

Smartphones and apps and social media often feel like the epitome of a generational divide. Phones are banned from classrooms (including my own, generally), social media is demonized (even though we all use it), or if not demonized, trivialized--regarded as a cultural arena for entertainment and play, but not for serious study and critique. However, many of us, and certainly most young people, are daily crafting intimate narratives about their own lives on those very phones. Any minute on Instagram is one crammed with countless Stories, Posts, Live broadcasts from our lives. Yes, the celebrities and politicians and gatekeepers are there too, but one can easily ignore them and follow only the interpretations and explorations of regular folks like us.

Much has been made of the information bubbles made possible by social media. Certainly that is an important conversation to have, but for the purpose of this lesson (and it’s partner lessons featuring the Otherly documentary series), we have the chance to interrogate the vast options for self-expression and self-chronicling afforded by social media, in particular Instagram. I am enchanted by the truism that the more focused and personal a story, the more broadly it appeals. There is a magic that happens when an artist tells one small story honestly-It becomes a big truth that resonates for countless others.

The Otherly Documentary Series conveys three of those stories. “Integrate.Me,” “Elaine is Almost,” and “FaceTime” are crafted from the images of our everyday lives. They use the medium of Instagram and visuals of social media and our phones to create the illusion of an almost casual moment--as if the filmmakers are simply sitting down with us to confide. Taken together they create a vivid example of what a powerful and radical act it is to create one’s spaces of home, of belonging; a creation made even more radical by the choice to share these films on Instagram, to create as many conversations, and stories, as possible.

A Note to Teachers

This is intimate work that will ask students to take a leap of trust in each other and in you. Depending on where you are in your year and with your group, this may be a first flight or one that builds on the bond in an already tight knit class. And of course, you may be applying this to a group of students who have only ever met each other on a digital platform like Zoom. Wherever you are, I encourage you to have faith in yourself and your students to make this leap! However, there are preparations that will be necessary to keep this space safe, and therefore positive, for all. Before beginning, I strongly suggest you create community agreements with your group. Even if you already have these in place, this is a good moment to review. You can also adapt your class agreements to a set specific to this project. Here is a sample list of community agreements, and there are a wealth of resources online for how to create a set of agreements with your class. Because all the variations of this lesson include sharing work in public and allowing for public comments, it will be essential to create a set of agreements focused on how to do so in a respectful, inclusive manner. For those using social media, that emphasis will be especially important. Take time to outline “Content Sharing” agreements. Though the time spent on these agreements might seem an aside to the curriculum itself, in fact those conversations will help create a shared trust that will facilitate powerful creative and academic learning.

Subject Areas:

• Journalism
• Filmmaking/Visual Art
• English
• History
• Current Events
• Social Justice
• Sociology
• Psychology
• Health

Grade Levels: 8-12 (can be scaffolded for Higher Education)

Objectives:

In this lesson, students will:

• Learn the practice of archiving, creating logs, catologing, and identifying patterns in narratives.
• Understand how to use social media and cell phones as archival tools; build a more critical understanding of the role algorithms play in shaping stories.
• Use research skills to find connections between global/historical/cultural milestones and personal narratives.
• Learn the basics of story structures and creating a story arc.
• Create an IG story that uses personal archival footage to tell a story arc, a living history.
• Engage in a collective community practice of learning about ethics, social media, and story sharing

Materials:

• Films and equipment to project/screen the films.
• Physical or digital space for charting student discussions. (Whiteboards, chalkboards, poster paper, digital whiteboard, etc.)
• Note taking materials: Pen, pencils, paper, or relevant assistive technology for students who use electronic devices for note taking.
• Personal recording devices, one per student: Smartphones, laptops, tablets would all work.
• A private Instagram account created by the teacher for each class section; teacher and students share account admin capabilities through a shared username and password.
• Handout: Modified Freytag’s Pyramid

Time Needed:

2-3 sixty minute sessions

“Introduce yourself,” are the first words we hear and almost at the same time the notes of a piano playing and then the words themselves appear as white handwriting on a deep blue screen. But the voice might as well be saying, “I love you,” such is its tone and timbre. And really that is what the narrator is saying, for this is “Elaine is Almost,” a hybrid animation and live action documentary that explores the unconditional love in the relationship between two siblings. In these two short films, Emily Yue captures their sister Elaine on the eve of her 14th and 15th birthdays. In just eight minutes, Yue communicates a memoir’s worth of understanding about their sister; their relationship; their culture; their experience as the children of immigrants; and, of course, Elaine herself. The magic of this medium is that it brings us as viewers into the intimate space of conversation that feels like we are participants in a FaceTime or IG Live with Elaine. Emily Yue is a Chinese-American artist and filmmaker from North Carolina. Their work in documentary animation and interactive media explores the intersections of queerness, language, and technology through the lens of tenderness.

This is a fitting time for their work and for this project. The news media is focused on the theme of cultural and political division in the U.S., and the realm of social media is often viewed as the hive of that division. This film (and this lesson) lives outside of that dominant framing and lives into the truths of the authors’ life. Instead, the film reminds us that social media can also be a platform for vulnerability, for self-revelation, for providing a counter narrative to those that would tell a very different story about what our bodies mean in the world. It highlights one relationship and centers the voice of one young person, taking their voice seriously and presenting it respect. The film demonstrates the power of listening with love.

With “Elaine is Almost” as inspiration, this lesson will introduce students to the art and ethics of the interview. Students will learn and write their own ethical code of interviewing. Through a collaborative in-class project, students will work with a partner to co-create a set of interview questions, taking turns as interviewer and subject, thereby experiencing shared agency and accountability for the experience of asking and answering questions about oneself. Finally, students will conduct and record interviews with someone they consider important to their lives, applying the code that they developed, and sharing the final, recorded project to a class-specific Instagram account. This lesson works in person or on a digital platform; some of the tweaks to the format necessary to conduct it online will be left to each instructor. It is also one that could be expanded into a longer curriculum, especially with a focus on animation and visual editing. As it stands here, students will have the chance to take their projects in a journalistic or creative direction. They will be sure to leave it with a new relationship to the art of care, curiosity, and connection.

A Note On Technology and Accessibility

This lesson, as well as the others in the Otherly series, bring social media into the classroom. These lessons are designed to integrate ethical engagement on social platforms to complete the assignments. It will be important for you to check with your school or district for any regulations around classroom or in-school student social media use.In addition, this lesson entails the creation of a class Instagram account. In order to set this up, the teacher will need to set up an IG account which will be shared only to the class, with a username and password that students can all access. That said, while some of the content and theory of the lessons would be lost without the use of social media, students could complete the assignments using the photo and video tools on their phones. However! The lessons are intended to critique, engage, and potentially transform the use of social media. If possible, the lesson will be most transformative as a social media-based engagement. And with enough planning, you and your learning community can create an analogue version of this lesson with printed-out photographs, storyboards on large paper in the classroom, and using school-based technology to record and play videos in school.

A Note From Curriculum Creator, Jade Sanchez-Ventura

I believe in personal narrative. I think that to communicate the particular experience of a life and to tie it literally or intuitively to the histories--familial, cultural, societal--that have shaped us is an act of resistance that also makes for excellent storytelling. This conviction is the underpinning of my work as an educator: No matter the subject, I know that every young person has a singular, vital perspective to bring and my role is to act as a catalyst for their bursts of insight and inspiration. Sometimes (too often) my role is to help students recognize the power of their own insight and intelligence. As with all systems of our society, the classroom can also be a site of profound oppression and silencing. As one mentor told me, “You want your students to leave a classroom not thinking that you’re smart, but that they are.” Often that entails reminding myself that with every generation there are new methods of making and communication emerging; reminding myself to ask students about what is present and relevant to their daily lives.

Smartphones and apps and social media often feel like the epitome of a generational divide. Phones are banned from classrooms (including my own, generally), social media is demonized (even though we all use it), or if not demonized, trivialized--regarded as a cultural arena for entertainment and play, but not for serious study and critique. However, many of us, and certainly most young people, are daily crafting intimate narratives about their own lives on those very phones. Any minute on Instagram is one crammed with countless Stories, Posts, Live broadcasts from our lives. Yes, the celebrities and politicians and gatekeepers are there too, but one can easily ignore them and follow only the interpretations and explorations of regular folks like us.

Much has been made of the information bubbles made possible by social media. Certainly that is an important conversation to have, but for the purpose of this lesson (and it’s partner lessons featuring the Otherly documentary series), we have the chance to interrogate the vast options for self-expression and self-chronicling afforded by social media, in particular Instagram. I am enchanted by the truism that the more focused and personal a story, the more broadly it appeals. There is a magic that happens when an artist tells one small story honestly-It becomes a big truth that resonates for countless others.

“Elaine is Almost” is one of those stories. In these two four minute films an entire relationship is told. As a viewer, I felt as if I was sitting in the room with Elaine, looking at the art on her walls, walking with her as she answered her sister’s questions, asked and answered in a narration floating over the images. It reminded me that the phone I hold in my hand is a tool I can use to capture the power of everyday.

A true story of young immigrants who get detained by U.S. Border Patrol—on purpose—and put in a shadowy for-profit detention center. Marco and Viri are members of a group of radical Dreamers on a mission to stop deportations, and they believe the best place to do that is in detention. In this lesson, students are asked to consider the practices and processes of US immigration policy; including detainment and deportation; treatment of people within detention centers; and issues of privacy and protection.

A Note from Curriculum Creator, Stacia Cedillo

This lesson plan invites us to consider the following questions that are crucial for critically engaged students and citizens: What visions can we create, what hopes can we possess? How do we work with others to communicate the revolutionary urgencies of our time? How can we transform our concepts of citizen and country?

A Note to Teachers

Discussing immigration—and more specifically, deportation—can trigger fear, anxiety, and discomfort for students who are directly impacted by the U.S. immigration and deportation complex. Individual stories and experiences can be a powerful teaching tool, but teachers should be careful to avoid inadvertently singling out or encroaching on the confidential citizenship status of immigrant students and their family members. Teachers should also take steps to avoid re-traumatization around the subject of immigrant detention that is the main focus of this film. This may require having conversations with students impacted by immigrant detention in advance, during, or after the lesson. Laying ground rules for discussion requiring respectful conversation, for instance, explicitly prohibiting bigoted language, is another key responsibility teachers should take to avoid enacting trauma in the classroom.

Subject Areas:

• Civics and Government
• Social Studies
• Language Arts
• U.S. History
• Global Studies

Grade Levels:9-12

Objectives:

In this lesson, students will:

• Interrogate systems and conditions of detainment, incarceration, and deportation in the US
• Identify hurdles, contradictions, and shortcomings within the legal framework for non-citizen immigrants seeking protection in the U.S.
• Understand structural similarities and differences between public and private prisons
• Examine differing approaches to activism and intervention, considering strategy and impact
• Articulate opportunities for social change outside the legal framework

Materials:

• The Infiltrators film clips and equipment on which to show them
• Paper and writing utensils

Time Needed:

Two 45-minute class periods with optional homework in between.

Using the documentary film 93Queen, which follows the early days of the first all-women Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) corps in a Hasidic Jewish community in New York City, students will learn how a group of trailblazing women faced resistance but succeeded in changing their community from within by founding Ezras Nashim. Within the context of the importance of tradition and respect for custom within the Hasidic Jewish community, students will explore the universality of the women’s journey to create change and establish a new expression of faith in a culture that may be unfamiliar, in order to appreciate the magnitude and groundbreaking work of these women.

OBJECTIVES
In this lesson, students will:
● Explore the different approaches to evolving religious/cultural practices
● Draw parallels between the work of Ruchie Freier and other women trailblazers, identifying the universal aspects of the first all-women EMT corps, Ezras Nashim
● Write an essay about strategies for changemaking in different cultures

GRADE LEVELS: 10-12 grade

SUBJECT AREAS
English/Language Arts, World and US History, Religion, Sociology, Gender Studies

MATERIALS
● Internet access and equipment to watch film clips from 93Queen

ESTIMATED TIME NEEDED
1 class period with extension activities and homework

Nationalism-infused resistance to providing asylum for refugees fleeing conflict has fueled calls to close borders in places across our global community. Yet the personal stories of those who are leaving their countries to seek safety elsewhere often get lost in statistics and debates over policies.

This lesson puts a human face on the statistics with clips from Midnight Traveler, a documentary shot entirely using mobile phones by an Afghan family seeking asylum in the European Union. Students will be asked to examine the debates surrounding the rights of refugee children. The lesson then allows for a flexible compare/contrast essay, so it can be linked to existing curricular needs, including current events, global studies and history.

RESOURCES FOR PREPARING THIS LESSON

Shannon Dooling, “What Is Asylum? Who Is Eligible? Why Do Recent Changes Matter?” WBUR, December 3, 2018.

Michael D. Shear, Eileen Sullivan and Zolan Kanno-Youngs, “What Will Trump’s Tough New Asylum Policy Mean for Migrants on the Border?”The New York Times, April 17, 2019.

Maya Rhodan, “5 Things to Know About the Asylum Process and How It Works,” Time, November 14, 2018.

OBJECTIVES

In this lesson, students will:

• See an example of what it’s like to be a modern refugee seeking asylum in the European Union
• Understand the vocabulary terms “refugee” and “asylum”
• Write a bill of rights for refugee children
• Compare their bill of rights to existing refugee policies
• Write a compare/contrast essay

SUBJECT AREAS

• Civics/Government
• Current Events
• Global Studies
• History
• Human Rights
• English/Language Arts

MATERIALS

The associated film clips and the ability to stream them, or a copy of the film.

ESTIMATED TIME NEEDED: 90 min.

When 83-year-old Sergio is sent as an undercover spy to a Chilean retirement home to track suspected elder abuse, he learns a deeper lesson about human connection. Through the lens of the hidden camera in his decoy glasses, viewers watch as Sergio struggles to balance his assignment with his increasing involvement in the lives of several residents.

When 83-year-old Sergio is sent as an undercover spy to a Chilean retirement home to track suspected elder abuse, he learns a deeper lesson on human connection. Through the lens of the hidden camera in his decoy glasses, viewers watch as Sergio struggles to balance his assignment with becoming increasingly involved in the lives

ADULT NONFICTION

Aronson, Louise. Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life. London, UK: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019.
Noted Harvard-trained geriatrician Louise Aronson uses stories from her quarter century of caring for patients and draws from history, science, literature, popular culture, and her own life to weave a vision of old age that’s neither nightmare nor utopian fantasy - a vision full of joy, wonder, frustration, outrage, and hope about aging, medicine, and life itself. The story of aging is the story of what it means to be human. It’s both a timeless tale and one that’s rapidly changing with advances in science, technology, and society.

Pipher, Mary. Women Rowing North: Navigating Life’s Currents and Flourishing as We Age. London, UK: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019.
Women growing older contend with ageism, misogyny, and loss. Yet as Mary Pipher shows, most older women are deeply happy and filled with gratitude for the gifts of life. Their struggles help them grow into the authentic, empathetic, and wise people they have always wanted to be. In Women Rowing North, Pipher offers a timely examination of the cultural and developmental issues women face as they age. Drawing on her own experience as daughter, sister, mother, grandmother, caregiver, clinical psychologist, and cultural anthropologist, she explores ways women can cultivate resilient responses to the challenges they face.

Gawande, Atul. Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End. New York, NY: Metropolitan Books, 2014.
Medicine has triumphed in modern times, transforming birth, injury, and infectious disease from harrowing to manageable. But in the inevitable condition of aging and death, the goals of medicine seem too frequently to run counter to the interest of the human spirit. Nursing homes, preoccupied with safety, pin patients into railed beds and wheelchairs. Hospitals isolate the dying, checking for vital signs long after the goals of cure have become moot. Doctors, committed to extending life, continue to carry out devastating procedures that in the end extend suffering. Gawande, a practicing surgeon, addresses his profession's ultimate limitation, arguing that quality of life is the desired goal for patients and families.

Kidder, Tracey. Old Friends.New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin, 1993.
Old Friends introduces us to Lou Freed and Joe Torchio, strangers thrust together as roommates. They discover, as Kidder writes, that the problem of Linda Manor is "the universal problem of separateness,” and we watch as, movingly, they set about solving it, with camaraderie and friendship, and ultimately love.

Leland, John. Happiness is a Choice You Make: Lessons from a Year Among the Oldest Old.New York, NY: Sarah Crichton Books, 2018.
In 2015, when the award-winning journalist John Leland set out on behalf of The New York Times to meet members of America's fastest-growing age group, he anticipated learning of challenges, of loneliness, and of the deterioration of body, mind, and quality of life. But the elders he met took him in an entirely different direction. Despite disparate backgrounds and circumstances, they each lived with a surprising lightness and contentment. The reality Leland encountered upended contemporary notions of aging, revealing the late stages of life as unexpectedly rich and the elderly as incomparably wise.

Levintin, Daniel J. Successful Aging: A Neuroscientist Explores the Power and Potential of Our Lives.New York, NY: Dutton Books, 2020.
Successful Aging inspires a powerful new approach to how readers think about our final decades, and it will revolutionize the way we plan for old age as individuals, family members, and citizens within a society where the average life expectancy continues to rise.

Tom, Isabel. The Value of Wrinkles: A Young Perspective on How Loving the Old Will Change Your Life.Chicago, IL: Northfield Publishing, 2020.
It's time to consider how our attitudes towards aging affect our views of the elderly. Isabel Tom grew up in a multigenerational home with her grandparents before beginning a career in the senior care field. She provides amusing anecdotes and insights from these experiences to help young adults embrace aging and intentionally love the old. It's a great loss for the young and old to experience life separately - don't let lack of understanding keep you from delighting in these irreplaceable relationships.

"I had four children, leaving all my joy for my old age, but here I am, and there's not that much joy."

Petita Petronila, poet and resident of San Francisco retirement home

“ELDERLY MALE NEEDED. Retired, between 80 and 90 years old. Independent, discrete and competent with technology.”

85-year-old widower, Sergio Chamy, responds to a help wanted ad in his local Chilean newspaper, and is soon swept into a world of spy-craft, intrigue, baffling-technology, and profound--and sometimes heartbreaking--revelations.

“It's like I'm beginning to feel like the person I used to be.” – Sergio Chamy

In Maite Alberdi’s documentary film, The Mole Agent, Sergio is hired from a crowd of octogenarian candidates to infiltrate a local retirement home where private detective, Rómulo Aitken, suspects a client’s mother, Sonia, is being mistreated. Sergio is eager to take on the job of a “mole agent” -- despite his family’s concerns – to help him through the loneliness and grief following his wife’s death and to reconnect with a sense of curiosity and purpose.

During his three-month assignment, Sergio immerses himself in his new role, gaining the trust of his peers, collecting information, and taking meticulous notes that he dictates to Rómulo in (sometimes excessive) detail. As his investigation deepens, however, Sergio struggles to balance his assignment with his compassion for the women and men who have embraced him as a friend and confidant. Sergio finds himself among a community of peers who feel they have been discarded by their loved ones and a society that no longer see them as poets, thinkers, workers, lovers, care-takers, contributors, or complex adults.

“The residents here feel lonely. They aren’t being visited, and some have been abandoned. Loneliness is the worst thing about this place.” – Sergio Chamy

Sergio begins to understand that the real crime he’s uncovering isn’t theft or mistreatment on the part of staff, but the neglect of Sonia and her peers driven by entrenched ageism and ableism that devalues the lives and contributions of older people. Sergio enters the home as the eyes and ears of Rómulo and his client but soon takes on a more challenging role as a witness to and the voice for the experiences of his neglected friends.

Alberdi’s documentary frames Sergio’s journey through a blend of comedy, film noir, and cinema verite that reveals an intimate, charming, and sometimes unsettling look at the lives of people just like Sergio who have more to contribute to a world that insists on dismissing them as “old”.

In this lesson, students will challenge what they think they know about “old age” and understand the impact that ageism has on older people like Sergio and his peers in The Mole Agent. They will examine how perceptions of “old age” and myths about aging contribute to loneliness and diminished health and quality of life for seniors. The lesson will culminate with students demonstrating their knowledge by identifying opportunities for positive social change for seniors and/or identifying and correcting age-related bias in the media.

A Note from Curriculum Creator, Allison Milewski

As we continue to live longer and better, our stereotypes and expectations about aging are rightly challenged. I’ve had the privilege of collaborating with diverse and inspiring communities of learners and educators across age groups but have more than once found myself setting higher goals and provided more challenging programs for students who are 16 than for those who are 60. I’m lucky that my adult students have been willing to call me out and demanded more from me. It’s a jarring to recognize how deeply entrenched my own ageism is despite my increasing proximity to what society would call “old age”.

As an educator, I’m drawn to engage with stories of older adults like Sergio who make us question our biases about age. Sergio’s compassion and perceptiveness demonstrate the value of his lived experience provides far more insight into the lives of the residents than any spy gadgets or modern tech.

Director Maite Alberdi’s documentary, The Mole Agent, beautifully illustrates the need for intergenerational dialogue and revelatory power of storytelling. Through the daily life and intimate stories of Sergio and his fellow residents, Alberdi deftly brings into focus the pervasiveness of ageism and the physical, mental, and emotional toll it takes on those who live long enough to be dismissed as “old”.

A Note to Teachers

This lesson, and the accompanying film, address issues that may be sensitive for some students. I encourage teachers and facilitators to screen the film clips and review all of the related materials in advance of the lesson. Some students may have personal experience with these issues and their perspectives and sensitivities should inform how the lesson is presented. It might also be helpful to connect with a school social worker for resources specific to your school’s guidelines and your students’ needs.

Before the lesson, remind the class that this is a supportive environment and make time to review your classroom’s tools for creating a safe-space, including class agreements. These might include guidelines like “no interrupting,” “listen without judgment,” “use respectful language,” “share to your level of comfort,” “you have the right to pass,” etc. And remind students that when they talk about groups of people, they should be careful to use the word “some,” not “all.”

Visit Teaching Tolerance for excellent resources and strategies for tackling challenging topics in the classroom:

• Teaching Tolerance: Let's Talk! Discussing Race, Racism and Other Difficult Topics with Students: https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/publications/lets-talk
• Social Justice Standards | The Teaching Tolerance Anti-bias Framework: https://www.tolerance.org/professional-development/social-justice-standards-the-teaching-tolerance-antibias-framework

Subject Areas

• Social Studies
• Health & Human Development
• Civil Rights
• Public Policy
• English Language Arts

Grade Levels: 9-12

Objectives:

Students will be able to:

• Identify how age-related bias (Ageism) informs our perception of elders and “old age”
• Explain why the concept of “old age” is difficult to define
• Describe the real-world impact of ageism as depicted in The Mole Agent
• Explain how perceptions of “old age” contribute to loneliness and diminished quality of life for seniors
• Distinguish between facts and myths about aging and later life
• Demonstrate their knowledge of aging and ageism by identifying opportunities for positive social change and/or analyzing how age-related issues are represented in the media

Materials:

• The Mole Agent film clips and equipment on which to show them
• Student Handouts
  • Student Handout A: Film Notes
  • Student Handout B: Facts and Myths about Aging
• Teacher Handouts
  • Teacher Handout A: Film Summary
  • Teacher Handout B: Facts and Myths about Aging
• White board/markers
• Large chart paper (at least 1 sheet for each group of 4-5 students)
• Masking Tape
• Pens and writing paper

Time Needed:

Two 50-minute class periods with homework