This school year, students in Monterey County were invited “…to open the page and to let the stories crawl in by themselves” (John Steinbeck, Cannery Row), in the Western Flyer Foundation’s Community Journal Project. Through a series of five lessons led by their teachers and project mentors, students recorded deep observations in their journals about their local environments: natural and built, human, animal and plant. They learned concepts of ecology, techniques in field sketching and illustration, and creative writing. Six professional scientific illustrators and three published writers served as project mentors, and they visited the classes throughout the year to provide instruction and feedback as students created their journals. The project curriculum is available online.
Many students kept journals, in which they sketched and wrote about their neighborhood and their natural surroundings, for the first time. For some students, this project was their first introduction to the writing and work of John Steinbeck and Ed Ricketts.
In surveys, more students self-identified as artists and were able to articulate how art helps them to learn about the world around them after participating in this program. The community journal project also had a positive impact on students’ feelings of connection to and pride in their local environments and communities. When surveyed after the program, more students were able to identify a place in their neighborhood where they can go to observe nature and more students named something special about their own communities.
The teachers from Rancho San Juan High School, North Monterey County High School, and Harden Middle School, who piloted the program with their students, also had positive feedback. One teacher said that the Community Journal Project “was a great introduction of field sketching and to observations of the world around them with great lessons to cover interactions on an ecological level. Niche is a hard thing to teach and this made it a little more interesting. I loved how the writing prompt connected English and Science. I loved this collaboration and would do it again in the future.” Another teacher said “The students love illustrating. It really opened their eyes to what was in their neighborhood. At the end of class, students said our art mentor was their favorite. Our writing mentor was so helpful and gave amazing examples of her work and then graded each student’s work with examples. Her work turned students’ 50 words into 500. So many [of my] students are English learners, they needed examples. I hope this program continues forever, for it was singularly the best thing to happen to my students’ success.”
Students’ illustrations and creative writing from the Community Journal Project may be viewed in the Western Flyer Foundation’s Gallery. We encourage you to take a look and get inspired to explore and observe your own community this summer!
This program was made possible with support from the Kathleen and Austin Barrows Fund of the Community Foundation for Monterey County and support from California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities.