March 16: 8th-graders write song, record music video about diversity, equality, kindness
DAKE STUDENTS WRITE & RECORD TOUCHING SONG: The music and lyrics for this original song "Differences Are Beautiful," were written in early 2022 by Dake Junior High School students Elisa Pacyga and Abigail Summerlin. The song was the culminating project for a section of Mrs. Lindsay Porter’s eighth-grade English class. Students were tasked with creating an original piece of social commentary or to analyze a social commentary from an author that interested them. The assignment followed classwork that included students reading texts and dissecting the author’s social message along with societal factors that may have impacted it. “We were just expecting to write a song for a class and thought it’d be fun,” Elisa says. It has turned into so much more. After a recording of the song was played during a West Irondequoit CSD Board of Education meeting as an example of current Culturally Relevant classroom work, school leaders invited Elisa and Abi to turn their "masterpiece," as Mrs. Porter calls it, into a music video. The song is a by-product of West Irondequoit CSD’s work with Dr. Jevon Hunter, a SUNY Buffalo professor with research-based experience on Culturally Relevant Education. It impacted Mrs. Porter and, in turn, her students.
To read the full story, featured in our March edition of "The Quote" and arriving in mailboxes of town residents this week, click here: bit.ly/Spring2022_Quote.