George Lucas Educational Foundation

Deepening Academic Understanding With Tangible Experiences

By providing middle school students a chance to walk in someone else’s shoes, teachers can help them develop empathy—and a stronger connection to content.

November 15, 2023

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Books offer the opportunity to step into someone else’s world, and middle school ELA teacher Jennifer Montgomery’s seventh-grade class did just that during their book study of Linda Sue Park’s A Long Walk to Water. In a Socratic seminar, students discussed how the author builds empathy for the characters, whose lives are playing out during two different time periods in Sudan. But to bring the book’s themes to life for her classroom in Eminence, Kentucky, Montgomery had her middle school students do their own walk—traveling a mile while carrying a jug filled with water. In the discussion that followed, students shared their own reflections and insights, emerging from this exploration with a stronger sense of empathy—and a solid experience of perspective-taking that will stick with them for years to come.

To learn more about the research behind the practices seen in the video, check out the links below. 

Schools That Work

Eminence Independent Schools

Public, Rural
Grades K–12
Eminence, KY

The Eminence Independent Schools district was failing less than a decade ago. Enrollment was declining, and test scores and morale were plummeting in the small, rural, Title 1 district in Eminence, Kentucky. To save the district and the town, Buddy Berry, the superintendent, initiated sweeping changes that were identified by the students themselves.

With community buy-in, the district built a 30,000-square-foot technology-focused building with eight makerspaces to foster personalized learning, made time for students to design and solve real-world problems, and developed an early college program to prepare students for college. The district also adopted a “surprise and delight” culture—focusing on ways to boost student and staff morale. The district’s efforts paid off: Graduation rates and college persistence rates have increased, and enrollment has doubled.

  • Achieved 100% College and/or Career Readiness by Kentucky state standards for 2013-2014 and 2014-2015.
  • 99.5% of early college program participants are either on track to earn a college degree or have already done so.
  • Selected to attend the 2014 ConnectED to the Future Convening at the White House.

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Filed Under

  • Social & Emotional Learning (SEL)
  • Student Engagement
  • English Language Arts
  • 6-8 Middle School
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