Students in an English First Peoples class worked with the story "A Boy in the Ditch". The story contains material that is both of sensitive and thought provoking. Students worked through a number of questions relating to the topic "life is what you make it", and then read the story. Following the reading they responded to more discussion questions, then wrote a multi-paragraph composition based on the prompt "Life is What You Make It".

Students were encouraged to choose topics for projects based on their own interests. This student chose robots. He spent the first part of the project doing Internet research - How are robots used? When was the first robot created? How can I build my own robot? – and did a report and display. Through his Internet research, he found the Bristol Bot kits, ordered one, and followed the instructions to make a robot. After all this preparation, he realized one day that he could create his own robot. He used the remote from his Lego car to create a robot that lifted a pop can up and down.

The teacher read It’s OK To Be Different, by Todd Parr with the class, and the children were asked to make personal connections with the story. Afterward, they talked about themselves and their classmates’ similarities and differences. They then created self-portraits. We’re Different, We’re The Same, from Sesame Street and My Nose, Your Nose, by Melanie Walsh were also used as extension books.

The students were given one hour of free choice time, where they were free to choose any activity and change whenever they wanted. Five students sat on the classroom couch to read. Three students chose to share a book together (the early version of a “book club”) and two students chose to read independently. At the end of the clip one of the independent readers engages with one of the group of three to point out something in her book.

These two pictures show a student and his father presenting the father's career in the oyster business. The other students listened and then asked questions. The student was highly motivated and extremely proud to prepare and present because he chose the topic of their presentation, and it was personally important for him. The student's confidence was strengthened through the interest and encouraging support of his peers.