We have been working on a multi-phased project using the best-selling novel Wonder, written by R.J. Palacio (published in 2012) and its movie adaptation, directed by Stephen Chbosky, (released worldwide in November, 2017). Wonder tells the story of how a child with a facial deformity navigates relationships with his family and classmates as he enters a school for the first time.
Our X-Media team completed the development of the Wonder Educator’s Resource Guide, in English and Mandarin, which includes an introduction to the X-Media approach and a variety of lesson plans that scaffold and adapt to student learning needs and the educator goals.
You may download a copy of the guide, for personal use only, here.
Our team has also incorporated X-Media analysis of the Wonder story into the Fall coursework for H370 offered at the Harvard Graduate School of Education
You can learn more about this course, “Trans-Media Literacy, Humanistic Storytelling, and the Promotion of Social Awareness”, in the Harvard Course Catalog for the 2019-2020 academic year here: http://bit.ly/X-Media_H370_course.
We are continuing to develop an interactive website, where students from around the world will have the opportunity to experience a student-centered learning experience by engaging in discussions and debates around Wonder with students in other schools and even in other countries.
Please check out our prototype forum and instructional videos: https://www.sastorytelling.org/nankai-students.
Read more about our work with Wonder (book and film) in this working draft essay, "Analyses of Stories to Deepen Social Understanding: The Art and Science of Using Humanistic Tales Across Media". (August, 2022)