Get Your Epiphany Project Lesson Plan Now Or Create Your Own!

About a year ago, I was tagged in an Instagram post by Jordan Moxley, a young teacher in Columbus, Ohio. I didn’t know Jordan or anyone in Columbus so I was perplexed at first until I saw that an Epiphany Project was premiering at the Columbus Museum of Art! This innovative teacher created a lesson plan for an Epiphany Project for her students the semester she taught Computer Graphics class (grades 9-12) at Fort Hayes Arts and Academic High School.

Their project is based on my Epiphany Project and book using video and written interviews. 9 of the 23 videos made by the students about their personal epiphanies were voted on by the class to be featured in the museum exhibit. Below is the video that was shown at COMA demonstrating the greatest epiphanies (so far) of those 9 students. I later Skyped with the class and we had a Q&A session about epiphanies and we discussed how I started the project and why and anything else they wanted to ask and talk about.

Our deepest gratitude goes out to all of them and their teachers at Fort Hayes Arts and Academic High School for sharing their amazing work with us. If these teens are already identifying moments and wisdom like this, and hopefully will continue to build upon them, can you imagine what’s in store for them? We can’t wait to see…

A brief summary of the Epiphany Project lesson plan is below as well as Jordan’s actual, formal proposal/lesson plan and a poem by Faith Pendleton, one of the students, about her epiphany. (That’s her quote at the top of the piece!) We are proud to have them available for you to download and so appreciate their gracious generosity. You can also watch my TEDx talk for Kids – only 8 min – if you’re interested in hearing more and having more to share.

If you have any ideas for your own Epiphany school projects or would like to learn more about this one and others that are starting to happen or if you’d like for me to speak or Skype with any group or class you’re working with, please contact me. My passion is spreading the messages about Epiphanies and making sure people of ALL ages are aware of them as a birthright and an excellent tool for their lives, so THANK YOU for helping me spread the word!

Epiphany Project Lesson Plan Overview

This lesson plan was developed for a Computer Graphics class at Fort Hayes Arts and Academic High School (an Arts Magnet school in a low-income school district) in Columbus, Ohio.

epiphany: a moment of great or sudden revelation; an intuitive grasp of reality through something usually simple and striking; an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure.

Selections from Epiphany: True Stories of Sudden Insight by Elise Ballard were read and videos from the Epiphany Channel website were watched in class and discussed.

Selections included: Gregory Wilson; Carol Lanning; Baracka Victor; Billie Myers; and Stacey Lannert.

The teacher felt all of these were relatable to her students and she had varying viewpoints to talk about with them. (The stories chosen to read/watch will depend upon teacher preference and the children’s backgrounds.) They discussed what an epiphany is and the different ways to look at each of these epiphany stories and how they could relate to the kids’ own experiences and thinking.

Writing assignments and later video assignments were implemented for the kids to tell their own epiphany stories and learn to use iMovie and other filmmaking and computer graphics tools. Everyone shared their videos and stories with the class.

At the end of the days of sharing, the class of 23 teens, ranging in age from 14-18, voted for 9 of their peers’ videos to appear in a show at the Columbus Museum of Art.

Read the teacher’s detailed lesson plan (please feel free to download) that had to be approved by the school district. Read an original poem (and please feel free to download or read below) written by one of the students.

Here you can watch the Epiphany Project video that was put together for the Columbus Museum of Art exhibit:

If you have any ideas or lesson plans for teaching about these moments, we want to hear them.

STUDENT’S POEM

When Faith Pendleton wrote this poem, inspired by her class’s Epiphany Project, she was a 16-year-old high school student at Fort Hayes Metropolitan Education Center in Columbus, Ohio. At the age of 16, she received a proclamation from the state house and won the National Bar Association’s Evett L. Simmons Mock Trial Competition. She is an advocate of all people–a person who stands up for what she believes in. She expresses her advocacy as Vice President of her school’s Diversity Club.

Elise Ballard
By Faith Pendleton

I walked through those doors finishing up my orientation.
I was excited and ready.
9th grade.
High School.

I looked around and smiled I didn’t see a high school but a campus.
The campus that would become my new home.
I left and returned on the first day
I was a little late
I scurried hurriedly up the stairs

Then paused and looked at the door
This same door wasn’t as scary the first time I saw it
Now it looked eerie, almost intimidating (10s)
I seemed to fall apart right there
My entire perspective had changed
I became terrified of the journey ahead of me

I wanted to run
I could feel my spirit leaving me running down the stairs and moving over the brick path

This campus was dark and distorted
All excitement was gone fear took its place as I stood in place still trying to bring my strength back I saw it fly away and disappear in my mind I reached for it but it was gone

Then I realized
This isn’t me.
I collected myself I went inside and I conquered
It was a hard first day but I made it
I even met people along the way
I’ve learned not to fear but instead smile through the darkness.

Copyright Faith Pendleton – All rights reserved.