After-school program at Sunnyside culminates in video project

This spring, thirty 7th graders from Yonkers Mark Twain Middle School Montessori Academy spent eight weeks at Washington Irving's Sunnyside for an after-school program with the theme of 'identity.' While learning about Irving, the students also looked at their own identity and created video vignettes about their work.

Along the way, the students looked at Irving as a celebrity, employer, family man, lover of nature, home designer, and more. To do this they explored the house and grounds and objects in depth. The children also analyzed a range of primary documents that included Irving's reviews of plays, contemporary reviews of movies written by teenagers, a letter to the editor sharing the news of Irving's death, and an obituary in the New York Times of a Tuskeegee airman. The students also participated in activities that the Irving family and friends might have enjoyed.

Dina Friedman, site director of Sunnyside, said, "The students' affection for sunnyside and Irving is palpable and their creativity is amazing. These videos, the results of their hard work, are a brilliant, welcome reminder of why we do what we do here at Historic Hudson Valley."

The vignettes are in two parts. You can view each of them below.