1st grade kicked off their year of project work with a PBL unit asking, “How can we learn about and share one another’s stories to grow our community? This unit was an exploration of how to use writing, speaking, and listening skills to increase a sense of belonging.
With their Kindergarten Names project from last year as a launching pad, students wondered what more they could add to their personal stories to keep building community at Saklan. They expanded on the name interviews from Kindergarten and asked their families more about their heritage and ancestry before presenting to each other in class. Next, using all their family stories and mentor texts, 1st graders wrote autobiographies. These were shared with family and friends at a rich cultural celebration filled with food and plenty of smiles. However, this experience was also intentionally a time for formative feedback. Families listened to the 1st graders present their autobiographies and provided each child with glows (things they are doing well) and grows (areas to work on) based on their presentation skills.
Next, they learned about the difference between an autobiography and biography. As students continued to work on staying curious and building community, they embarked upon writing biographies about their 8th grade family group leaders. Saklan’s unique cross-grade and cross-divisional Social Emotional Learning and Leadership program, Family Groups, is led by 8th graders and designed to create meaningful bonds between students from all grade levels K-8. This PBL unit was a perfect opportunity for 8th graders to be helpers and biography subjects. 1st graders interviewed, wrote, revised, and shared biographies they wrote about their 8th-grade family group leaders, staying curious and strengthening their community relationships through the process.
Join us at CLAS on Friday, November 6th to hear the first graders read excerpts from the 8th grade biographies. This will also be the final presentation assessment of all the hard work the 1st graders have put into improving their listening, speaking, and presentation skills.
#SaklanProjectWork #SaklanCommunity
