A Curation Project to End the School Year

Some of my favorite memories as a student were the moments when I had deep ownership over whatever I turned in. Twenty years later, I still remember projects that allowed me to make creative connections between my interests and our content.

I drew on those memories to create a final project for my students a few years ago. I wanted them to flex their creative muscles and find media that resonated with them. Inspired by teacher Chanea Bond’s work on curation projects and the National Council of Teachers of English’s piece on Book Bentos, I’ve now incorporated “Bento Box Projects” in multiple content areas and grade levels in my classroom.

A Curation Project Highlights Students’ Analytical Skills 

Cult of Pedagogy’s Jennifer Gonzalez shares that a curator “collects artifacts, organizes them into groups, sifts out everything but the most interesting or highest-quality items, and shares those collections with the world.” This definition hits on a key reason I’ve loved using these projects: Curation employs multiple skills, like comprehension, identification, analysis, and evaluation, to create the best piece possible. These projects also ask students to find various types of media, like poetry, videos, and visual art. Students then see how an idea can be expressed in multiple mediums and are exposed to various art forms. 

Students also have to consider their audience, as the purpose of the boxes is for them to be displayed and shared with their peers. Curation projects empower students to be creators. Since students find pieces around a theme, they see themselves as curators of information and ideas. This level of ownership engages students and creates space for them to pull items that they feel personal connections to. It also provides ample opportunities for student choice and differentiation, since the idea of the curation project is meant to be flexible and convenient, depending on the needs of whoever is creating it.

I’ve used these projects in several different ways across grade levels, but I always love using them in spring or toward the end of the year. The energy is high, and students have often built good relationships with each other, both of which lend themselves well to these projects.

When I taught eighth grade, we read Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl’s play Ola Nā Iwi (The Bones Live), which questions the ethics of museum displays. This subject had clear connections to learning about museum curators, and as a result, I had my students act as their own curators. So, for their project, I asked students to find several different types of “artifacts” around themes or ideas from the play. By seeking multiple types of media around these themes, my students made global connections to situations that impacted us locally. For example, several students were able to see how other cultures managed the repatriation of remains or expressed their feelings around similar storylines. 

Introducing the Bento Box for Project-Based Learning

More recently, I called my projects “Bento Boxes” after being introduced to “Book Bentos.” In Japanese culture, bento box meals typically feature several items neatly arranged in a box to be eaten together. In Hawai‘i, the concept of portable bento meals became popular because of Japanese plantation workers, and bento boxes became common throughout the islands (I had one yesterday). I’ve combined ideas about curation with “Book Bentos,” since many of my students are familiar with bento boxes as a concept. Bento Box projects ask students to artfully organize items that individually fit a theme but are meant to be considered as a whole.

In addition to talking about a text, Bento Box projects easily tie into concepts that ask students to consider highly nuanced or multifaceted ideas, like identity. In my ninth-grade class, “Identity Bento Boxes” have been a great way to have students explore and share their identities in our class community. My 11th-grade American Literature students explore concepts of “local” identity in Hawai‘i (an incredibly nuanced topic) with a “Local Identity Bento Box” project, where they share their ideas about “being local” after we do a unit on local literature from Hawai‘i. 

For both projects, students craft an “Artist Statement.” This exercise allows them to practice sharing the analytical connections they crafted first through visual elements but now in writing. The artist statement also provides a space for students to make connections to the texts we’re reading in class. My ninth graders connect their “coming of age” identity with the main character in the book they’re currently reading, and my 11th-grade students have to choose at least one quote from a text we read during that unit and explain why they chose it.

5 Tips to Support Successful Outcomes

After doing these projects for a few years, I’ve come up with some considerations for student success:

1. Modeling and samples are essential: I model metacognition, choosing relevant artifacts, and more. I also provide photo samples of what I’ve created, as well as examples from other students and professional sources.

2. Choice is great, but providing boundaries and ideas helps, too: When I’ve told students that they can choose any theme, some get overwhelmed. To help them narrow things down, I’ve started providing a short list of sample ideas, themes, and topics. This scaffolding still allows students to get creative and also provides some guardrails to ensure that they stay on the right path.

3. Written explanations are excellent for synthesizing: Finding interesting artifacts is great, but students really see the connections when they’re pushed to write them out. This is particularly true when they know that they’ll be sharing with their classmates—the stakes feel higher, and the audience is clear.

4. Give students a chance to share with each other during the process: Some of the artifacts that students find are particularly relevant to their peers, but sometimes they need support during the explanation process. For example, a student might love a song, but their classmate can help them see that they need to provide more context to make the connection clear. By giving them a chance to share early, we build engagement and collaboration skills.

5. Share and get creative: This project is particularly effective when students share their ideas. I’ve had students set their projects up as a gallery walk: They write a quick one- or two-sentence takeaway about their box, walk around, and leave feedback for each other. At the end of the walk, students shout out the ideas that they appreciate. 

Ultimately, curation projects are powerful because they can be flexible and adaptable across grade levels and content areas, provide creative opportunities, and still produce rigorous outcomes for students. I’ve found myself recommending them to fellow teachers more and more. The act of curation is a framework for assessment, but the actual assessment or project can be as multifaceted and personalized as a bento box itself.