Largest Special Ed District in Nation Launches Year-Long Creative Learning Curriculum

BOSTON - Oct. 20, 2015 - PRLog -- New York City, known around the world as a creativity and publishing powerhouse, is accelerating its innovative effort to foster creative self-expression with special needs students.  Earlier this month, NYC Department of Education’s District 75 (D75) kicked off its 2015-16 Middle School After School Digital Content & Literacy Curriculum program in collaboration with Boston-based education media & software developer FableVision.  D75 is the largest special education district in the nation, which provides critical educational and support services to 58 school organizations.

D75 students will be engaged in a rigorous, year-long exploration of literacy, creativity and STEM. Using two complementary, creative learning software programs, students will be writing and publishing their stories, as well as animating them. Both tools were inspired by NY Times best-selling author and illustrator Peter H. Reynolds  (Judy Moody, The Dot, Ish, Sky Color, The North Star, Going Places) and the creator of many award-winning animated films, including The Dot, which landed the Carnegie Medal of Honor.

Reynolds, who founded FableVision, shares, “Our mission for nearly two decades has been to help ALL learners navigate their full potential – no matter what their abilities.”  Reynolds' passion to help children began at age twelve when he volunteered at a special needs camp where, as he notes, “I experienced first hand the profound power in truly understanding the unique gifts and abilities of every child.”

Donna Dimino, Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction in D75, stated, “In the words of Albert Einstein, ‘It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.’ We believe our collaboration with FableVision will bring this vision to a reality in our schools.”

Students will start by writing and publishing their own hard cover and digital books, as well as digital books using FableVision’s My Awesome Publishing Company, an online software platform co-developed with LuluJr.com and supported by a partnership with the National Writing Project. After writing their books, students will animate their stories using FableVision’s Animation-ish software.

FableVision is also overseeing implementation of evaluation and measurement, which includes rubric-based tools and reporting systems.

District 75 provides citywide educational, vocational, and behavior support programs for students who are on the autism spectrum, have significant cognitive delays, are severely emotionally challenged, sensory impaired and/or multiply disabled.  District 75, under the leadership of Superintendent Gary Hecht, is part of the New York City Department of Education (DOE), which is the largest school district in the US, serving 1.1 million students in over 1,800 schools.

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About D75 & FableVision:
http://schools.nyc.gov/Academics/SpecialEducation/D75/AboutD75/default.htm
www.fablevisionlearning.com