BLOOMFIELD, NJ — Like all students in Bloomfield this year, Lisa Basile’s English-as-a-second-language students haven’t gotten the chance to be in their regular classrooms at Bloomfield High School because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which meant they didn’t get to put on their annual arts event in the BHS library and art gallery this winter, exhibiting work about their immigrant experiences. Their classrooms are now at home, so Basile had to adapt her annual program and take it to the internet, teaming up with filmmaker and educator Jean Michel Dissard to edit a digital exhibit.
“This unit that I do every year on story and writing about one’s life is critical,” the ESL teacher said in a phone interview with The Independent Press on March 13. “It’s also about being a teenager.”
The students, most of whom have come to Bloomfield from other countries, write about their experiences moving to a new place and learning a new language. They work with the art teachers as well on visual components, and the project culminates in a day when their families can come to BHS to see the final result.
“It’s a big deal,” Basile said. “Their parents rarely have an opportunity to be part of the school world. It’s the piece de resistance of the year. It means something to the kids and their families. So we had to figure out, how do we put something together?”
But the circumstances that led to school buildings being closed for a year couldn’t be ignored. So Basile adjusted the topic and had students write about their experiences during the pandemic.
“This year I felt like I couldn’t avoid and I didn’t want to avoid their situations,” she said. “I had them read students’ work from other years and then do something different, about what it’s like to be from this point in time.”
Dissard has worked with Basile and the BHS students in the past — he usually comes to her classes each year and speaks to them about his own work. This year, he edited the students reading their poetry into a video for students and their families to watch. Basile was glad to see how engaged students became.
“There was a lot of excitement to record,” she said. “It’s really rare that they turn on their video during class. What I figured out was, this really mattered to them.”
Hopefully BHS students will be able to be back in the library by the time Basile starts next year’s “What’s Your Story?” project. But not everything has to go back to exactly as it was pre-pandemic: Video elements can still be incorporated, and new technology can be blended with the in-person gatherings.
“The kids really woke up to the reality that their recording was putting them in a new place,” Basile said. “They’ve been sitting in their beds and at the kitchen table during school. Why would I stop doing this if it awakened them? I would like to pay attention to that. There’s something special about gathering, but maybe part of it is video. It’s a new media element that’s here to stay.”
The topics can expand, too. The pandemic has stolen a lot from high school students, but they all had virtual learning in common. There’s room to talk about more experiences now.
The BHS students’ work can be seen at www.ilearnamerica.com/human-library/ by clicking on Bloomfield High School.
“Usually it’s about, ‘I’m coming from another place, who am I?’” Basile said. “That’s no different now, but COVID was this factor that makes it not really matter. We didn’t need to only talk about their immigrant experience, because this was happening all over the world to all teenagers.”
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