TNP's Lifecycle Suite: Immersion and Impact
When The Nora Project was co-founded in 2016, it was based on a single program for students in fourth or fifth grade. Thousands of students participated in that program between 2016 and 2019, and time and again we received feedback from educators and parents that they wanted more!
As we contemplated this prospect, The Nora Project staff knew that getting kids involved in this type of immersive social/emotional learning from a young age and offering them chances to revisit it over time would be the surest way to make empathy and inclusive behaviors a part of students’ identities. Out of that understanding grew our Lifecycle Suite of programs - 3 unique programs spanning pre-k thru 12th grade that revisit similar topics in developmentally appropriate ways and challenge students to grow their learning and generalize it to new contexts over time. We encourage our partner schools to consider implementing all three programs so that students revisit The Nora Project programs regularly throughout their school careers, each time learning about disability, inclusion, and empathy in new and exciting ways as they develop their Ability Inclusive Mindset.
Over time, we’ve seen schools expand Nora Project programming and take on all three of our Lifecycle Programs - the Primer Pack, the Storyteller Project, and the STEMpathy Club. We recommend that schools space out their implementation of Nora Project programs so that students engage with the content every other year or so. In these schools, staff have noticed a few key things:
Moving from one program to another, students are bringing more background knowledge and making connections. Learning is incremental, and when students come to a topic with prior knowledge, it helps them expand their understanding and connect that learning to new situations. This gradual building of understanding also helps with transfer! As students become more familiar with the topics embedded in Nora Project programs - empathy, inclusive behaviors, disability awareness, and more - they live out an Ability Inclusive Mindset more readily, like a reflex! As one teacher put it, “When they come back for year two, or three, they find themselves less in the place of ‘How does disability make sense to me and how can I be a good person?’ to ‘I understand disability as a part of the world I live in, so my goals are to be less passive in my learning and more active.’”
Students are more likely to engage and support one another both in and out of the classroom. Nora Project programs teach students to appreciate and celebrate differences and give them opportunities to get to know one another and practice friendship skills. This translates into students supporting one another by being respectful, offering assistance, and looking out for each other. We see students with and without disabilities seeking opportunities to spend more time together outside of school, too.
School culture becomes more respectful and inclusive. When Nora Project programs are implemented across the grade levels, students in a school take on an identity of includers, and that has a significant impact on school culture. Kids learn how to manage their emotions, how to get to know, interact with, and include others, which results in them being more considerate and supportive overall. And it provides students with a different lens through which they view the world. We’ve heard anecdotes from staff members that behavior referrals are reduced and students are better able to problem solve independently.