Reciprocity at work.
Previous Projects & initiatives
In collaboration with Paper Monuments, YouthForce NOLA, the Freedom on the Move project, and Living School NOLA, Reciprocity Works has designed lesson plans and materials for small projects as well as full curricula.
For Paper Monuments, a lesson was designed prompting students to reflect on the role of monuments in society, what makes some monuments more effective than others, and what we should memorialize within our own communities, culminating in each student submitting a proposal for a new monument in New Orleans. Katie also led trainings for educators on how to implement this lessons.
For Living School NOLA, Katie designed project-based, culturally responsive, justice-oriented curricula for Civics, English IV, World Geography, and U.S. History as well as a Creative Writing elective that included an array of projects from a political action campaign to pass a pathway allowing English Language Learners to access a high school diploma through an alternate pathway to publishing a book about New Orleans artifacts and hosting author panels with local culture bears to launch the book.
For Youthforce NOLA’s Launch program, Katie designed a year-long curriculum of 90-120 minutes of live instruction and activities, with additional asynchronous work on personal development and soft skills topics for young people transitioning from high school to college or the workforce.
For Freedom on the Move, a database of fugitives from North American slavery created by a collaboration between Cornell University, the University of Alabama, the University of New Orleans, University of Kentucky, and the Ohio State University, Katie designed a three week unit focused on understanding the importance of word choice in language such as “self-emancipated” and “enslaved people, practicing research skills, and learning about plants that are indigenous to the New Orleans region and their uses, culminating in the creation of a “Liberation Garden,” honoring self-emancipated people.
DALE Fellowship.
In collaboration with Our Voice Nuestra Voz, Katie designed an ongoing fellowship that prepares teams of general education teachers and other support staff to better support students who are English language learners so that they can thrive at school. The fellowship focuses on better preparing students academically through instructional best practices and supporting them socially, emotionally, and politically through training in SEL practices and sharing information about current local and national immigration issues and policies.
Through readings, professional development sessions, school visits, and expert guest speakers participants gain frameworks, knowledge, and skills that will directly benefit their students. After learning best practices, participants work in school based teams to use design thinking to decide how best to pilot them in their own school and continue to evaluate and reevaluate the results.
Writing Programs
In collaboration with the Travis Hill School and Living School NOLA, Katie has designed writing programs of varying lengths focused on the development of voice and confidence in creative and academic writing culminating in the collaborative creation of printed chapbooks.
What We Could Become
A newsletter, social media platform, and mutual aid effort centered on exploring abolition as an ongoing, day-to-day process. WWCB’s newsletter maintains a 60%+ open rate. During Hurricane Ida, WWCB was able to collect and redistribute $8,896 in direct mutual aid.
An Abolitionist Deck
A 40 card deck meant to foster engagement with abolitionist ideas and reflection questions in our day-to-day lives. This project raised $3,035 in pay for working class artists and donations for organizations on the frontlines of the fight against the prison industrial complex (Solidarity Gardens, Free ALAS, and Orleans Parish Prison Reform Coalition).