John Jay Middle School sixth-graders, who are members of Team Tenacity, shared with friends, family and administrators what they’ve learned throughout the school year during the annual “Learning Celebration,” held at the school’s library on May 12.
The event featured student-created work from different academic areas, including science, math, social studies and language arts. Students set up presentation booths and spoke enthusiastically about their chosen topics and the inquiry, creativity and research that went into their projects.
“I was extremely impressed with the level of student engagement and parent enthusiasm. Everybody had the opportunity to go 'above and beyond' with a self-selected topic, covered either directly or indirectly, in his/her academic classes,” said social studies and literacy teacher Guy Amdur. “What type of learning experience can be more meaningful and satisfying than that?”
Social studies teacher Mark Grossman said the team of teachers encouraged their students to reflect on their learning and select a topic or piece of work that they were particularly proud of or found interesting. While most students chose to create a presentation that built upon the work they already completed in class, others decided to use the skills and strategies they learned throughout the year to engage in new learning for the event.
"The students sounded professional in their presentations. They were all well spoken, filled with knowledge, and enthusiastic!" said Jennifer Fattone, a math and science teacher.
Sixth-grader Josh Hiller, who studied ancient Egypt in social studies, said he chose to further research ancient Egyptian musical instruments because he was interested in the topic. In his presentation, he described eight instruments and created a multimedia presentation on his iPad that demonstrated the sound each instrument made.
Lucy Landzberg, a sixth-grader who is writing and illustrating a book about her great-great-aunt’s life in Poland during the Holocaust, presented the first chapter of her book. Through the story that’s close to her heart, Landzberg said she wanted to educate other people about an important topic and time in history. She said she also enjoyed the creative process and opportunity to further develop her writing skills.
“I loved making all the pictures and I thought it was the best writing I’ve ever done since it’s so close to me and I know the story so well,” Landzberg said. “The [Learning Celebration event] was special because I feel like all the kids should have a chance to express themselves and show what they’ve learned and what is meaningful to them.”