Kinship Project Brings Eighth Grade Families Together to Share Stories

The ninth annual Kinship Project Evening took place on May 17, the culmination of a six-week eighth grade research and writing project that engages students in interviewing their parents and other relatives; gleaning details of family history and recording stories; and then producing a final paper that includes the interviews and a family album. For this annual story-telling evening, all students, parents, and grandparents are invited to get up and tell a three-minute story from their lives. “This year we had lots of stories about dogs,” says teacher David Jefferies, “but why not? As one of our storytellers said, ‘They give more than they take.’” Stories included a mix of tragedy, challenge, and joy and included ones about visiting old hometowns, parents learning things they did not know because of their children’s conversations with grandparents, immigration, coincidences, and how people survived the Holocaust.

 

Adds Mr. Jefferies, “After all the interviewing and writing that the students do for this project, it is the perfect ending to see these stories embodied in the storytellers themselves and to share them with the community.”