We had a wonderful experience on Thursday afternoon as a part of our Human Rights study. We've come back together after identifying what we feel are key human rights and the students were surprised at how many of the rights were the same, even though we were in completely separate groups. We read a simplified version of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the students were again surprised by how their own ideas aligned with those of the United Nations.
As teachers, we've been struggling a bit to know where to go next. This theme seems very connected to our times and yet it is very abstract. We've been reading My Palace of Leaves in Sarajevo which chronicles a girl's life during the Bosnian War and students were struck by everything she doesn't have. Students are also interested in the Civil Rights movement, environmental rights, gender equity, and Haiti but nothing was galvanizing them — they just have a lot of questions that provoke great discussions but no "products" of our learning.
On Thursday, we did a group learning project called a "World Café." After a brief introduction during which Cathy, Amy and I read poems we had written about a specific right, students circulated among our rooms and recorded impressions of what they thought of when they imagined not having the right that was written on the paper in front of them (each table had a poster size paper with a single right on it). Their thoughts were in many cases profound.
We'll be taking these ideas and feelings and asking the students to create a visual or written response to one of the rights. We'll collect their work in a book which we'll share with you. The project may continue after that — but, as always with emergent curriculum, we'll have to see what happens.
We invite anyone who would like to join us as a participant or helper in the project to come up to our classrooms from 12:40-1:40 on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday of this week. MM
The Rookery 
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