About Borders to Bridges

Borders to Bridges is designed to promote dialogue in schools and communities by engendering deeper understanding and discussion to counter the myths, bullying, and fears that negatively affect our learning institutions.

The Guidebook contains practical lessons plans, narratives, poetry, mixed media artwork and resources for K-12 educators, and after-school, refugee, counseling, prison, adult, university, teacher training education programs. Borders to Bridges enriches learning and engages students with issues that touch their lives and communities.

Borders to Bridges - Immigration curriculum guidebook

Janice Frame

Janice Frame (Contributing Educator – Immigration and Imagination Through Images and co-coordinator of pilot program) holds a B.F.A. from Fisk University in Fiber and Textiles and Art Education, and a M.A. in Curriculum and Instruction from Cambridge College.

She has been, for the past 35 years, an art educator K -12 on Martha’s Vineyard. Prior to becoming a part of the island community, she taught art in Westfield, MA and in Dekalb County public schools in Atlanta, GA. She also taught weaving as an adjunct professor at Morris Brown College in Atlanta.

Janice has been an integral part of the island art community both in the visual arts and theater arts. She managed the Field Gallery in West Tisbury for four seasons. She is the artistic director of the book Borders to Bridges: Arts-Based Curriculum for Social Justice, and co-coordinator of the pilot program in the Martha’s Vineyard Public Schools. Link to artwork website. Link to Style article.

Borders to Bridges Curriculum

Borders to Bridges is an immigration curriculum guidebook that achieves the following:

Promotes dialogue in schools and communities.
Presents 54 practical lesson plans and 22 warm-up exercises for interdisciplinary connections written by experienced educators.
Contains sections on Poetry, Prose and Short Fiction, and inspirational Personal Narratives to be used with lesson plans.
Engages students with project ideas and activities using interview techniques, role-play, creative writing, economic analysis, scientific exploration, historical and political research, mural painting, service learning, music, dance, and graphic arts.
Provides ideas for sharing information in community performances, exhibitions, and art displays, and on public access television and social media.
Connects with up-to-date resource lists of news articles, teacher guides, arts resources (books, films, videos, music, podcasts, photography, media interviews, antiracist materials), and service organizations working to further human rights and belonging.

Contributors

Borders to Bridges contributors include many world-renowned educators, poets, artists, and writers from different countries and United States.

Pilot Program Classrooms

100+

Contributing Countries

Contributing States

Local Contributors

50+

Borders to Bridges Workshop

Link copied!

Pilot Programs

In the late summer of 2019, a pilot program was designed to implement the Borders to Bridges materials on Martha’s Vineyard thanks to the support of the MV Vision Fellowship, the then Vice Superintendent (now Superintendent) in charge of Curriculum and Instruction, and other teachers, administrators, facilitators, and coordinators named in Acknowledgements of the Borders to Bridges book.

The piloting is accessible for teachers in a variety of ways. Some choose to use the lessons and supplementary materials from Borders to Bridges individually to spark new ideas or enhance curriculum.

Individual teachers piloted materials in K-12th grades in biology, computer science, Sheltered English, social studies, performing arts, language arts, world languages, ELL, social studies, pre-school, university, afterschool programs, university courses, and adult education (Exploring Poetry I-IV, What’s in a Name, Place-Based Narrative, Cultural Exploration, Roleplay I-III, Visual Teaching Strategies, Infographics, Defending Preference, Immigration Exploration, Life River, and Warmups, and more).

The pilot provides a model to be replicated. Other communities using Borders to Bridges materials include Owl & Panther, a non-profit group serving newcomers in Tucson, Az; in Canada, Rencontre Théâtre Ados, a program welcoming refugees in Laval, Quebec; and in Rafaela, Argentina El Instituto Profesional del Profesorado, a teacher training college. Other programs viewing the materials include an NGO that works in disadvantaged areas of the Middle East; English language classes in Spain; and in Canada, scholastic and therapeutic programs in Toronto, Ontario and Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Art Gallery

See contributed artwork