The Global Story Web Unit was developed in the context or a collaborative partnership between the Globe Foundation, Indiana University, and Christel House India. Three graduate student interns were chosen by the Globe Foundation to observe the educational processes of a private school in India; they were then asked to develop a responsive on-line five day, 45 minute daily lesson plan, curriculum unit based on their observations. Their main task was to formulate and pilot a curriculum unit intended to facilitate cross-cultural exchange and understanding. One of the most difficult challenges was the creation of a curriculum unit that is universal enough to be responsive to numerous global contexts and particular enough to be relevant to local contexts. The Unfinished Story was written with a global audience in mind, but intended to incite creativity in the minds and hearts of the individual child who reads it. We hope that you enjoy reading the children's creative stories and admiring their beautiful art presented in this book.

The Global Story Web Unit provides a creative opportunity for children from various countries and cultural backgrounds to connect with one another in a personal way, thus making the world a much smaller place. Envisioned as a medium for cross-cultural exchange and dialogue, the Unfinished Story asks children to create their own unique endings to a common story beginning. The main character, Sadie the calf, is left standing at a crossroads with numerous possible decisions. Children are encouraged to engage their creative imaginations when visualizing their story's ending amid many possible options. Through author dialogues about fictional narratives and personal auto-biographies, children learn about the similarities and differences in the lives of other children around the world. The Unfinished Story serves as a medium for cross-cultural exchange and understanding through which children share their lives and creativity.

Important Note: In this publication, some children chose Sadie the calf as their main character, while others chose some other animal or person. This is an option designed to foster ownership and creativity.

"We started out by doing the heart activity. It was interesting to watch the students try to decide what "made them who they were." From my observation, almost all of them included God and their family on at least one piece of their heart. Our school is one of low-socioeconomic status. It was interesting to see how many students didn't list personal belongings on their hearts. That was refreshing! I purposely didn't mention why we were doing the heart activity. I wanted to see if the students were able to make the link themselves.

Then, I introduced the "Unfinished Story" and assigned for them to complete the story, just as the lesson plans explained. The students really seemed to enjoy this assignment and, in my opinion, stretched themselves to reach their potential. It seemed to help that they had a rather detailed introduction. I believe that pushed my students to write more…not that length is the only thing when writing, but they wrote more on this assignment than they have all year.

The only changes that I made to the curriculum was that I had the students pair up and make the Venn Diagrams with students within the classroom rather than use the internet site. After making the comparisons, I asked them to reflect and write a concluding paragraph discussing whether or not they used the elements from their hearts and why. Only a few of them had used them. I feel that you have a very efficient writing unit. I seemed to spur on my students."

Jody Matthews
Clinton Young Elementary
5740 McFarland Rd.
Indianapolis, IN 46236