Powerful Poetry

On February 19, our fifth graders celebrated the culmination of a five-week poetry unit by sharing their original work at Barnes & Noble Westport. Over the course of our poetry study, students crafted 16 unique pieces in a variety of forms. At the heart of this unit was an essential question: Why do we write poetry? Is it to entertain? To reflect? To educate? To empower? In short – yes!

Our fifth grade poets played with rhythm and humor in their limericks, imagery and word choice in their haikus and acrostics, and the parts of speech in their cinquains and diamantes. They dug deep to weave haunting found poems using Martin Luther King’s speeches, which are on display outside the writing classroom. They joyfully composed secret poems for their classmates that were shared on Valentine’s Day. The poets looked within to consider what makes them unique, special, and perfectly imperfect, and used figurative language to illustrate their complexity. Their I Am poems will serve as artist statements for their self portraits that grace our halls. Their Best Part of Me poems and photos reside upstairs for all to enjoy. Finally, we considered how poetry can serve as a call to action. The students’ powerful protest poems will inform the arpilleras they are creating in visual arts, inspired by the bold and empowered women poets and artists of Pinochet’s Chile.

While poetry is a truly personal exploration, it gains power when shared amongst friends and read aloud. To this end, we spent time focusing on PVLEGS – poise, voice, life, eye contact, gestures, and speed – in order to fully convey the intentions behind their words. Our Poetry Night served as the perfect end to a special unit, where the students found their voices in front of family and friends. It was a truly special evening, where our fifth graders courageously warmed souls and inspired minds with their reflective and moving poetry.

Changes in Chile

As part of a collaboration with their visual arts and writing classes, fifth grade Spanish students have been learning all about Chile. From political history and los desaparecidos (the disappeared), to arpilleras and protest art and poetry, to famous Chileans, the students have spent weeks studying the effect that the Pinochet dictatorship had on the Chilean people. To cap off this project, the Spanish students created an art project where they responded to one of the major themes that we studied in class. Projects included dances, poems, paintings, and posters, and all connected meaningfully to our study of such a turbulent time in Chile’s history.

Unquowa Featured in New London Day

Our 5th grade Social Studies class was recently featured in Connecticut Family, a special publication magazine within the New London Day. We were featured in the magazine for our collaborative learning and teaching experience of the history of Native Americans in New England. We worked with educator and historian Chris Newell, who is a Pequot Museum educator, and co-founder of Akomawt Educational Initiative.

Our 5th grade scholars made an impression with their knowledge of the Native American experience and colonization. Such an impression that Chris asked to include us in the article, adding:

“Akomawt’s approach is to create new learning paths to include Native perspective in these stories so that American students learn a fully rounded history of this country. We teach not just the parts we love to celebrate, but the parts of history that were not so great. By working with 5th graders, with this level of honesty about history (telling the good, the bad and the ugly) the idea is not to induce guilt, but rather to learn from the mistakes of history. Akomawt believes very strongly in experiential learning and my time with the students at Unquowa was well spent as I saw the light in their eyes open up and we changed their direction to a more informed one going into the future. Unquowa’s choice to involve this learning approach is apparent. Using good sources is so important. These students will go on to their high schools and question why Native perspective is left out of the history they’re being taught there and be the leaders at making the change. It’s a double-strategy. A bottom-up approach, working with students directly to change the system through education like our work at Unquowa, but we also employ a top-down approach and work with teachers and the systems that teach teachers to show them the value in what we do and give them a path to follow that is informative and culturally competent. There are lofty goals for what we do and Unquowa is now part of the story of how we get there.”

I personally want to thank 5th grade scholars for their contribution in these efforts, please give them a hand!

Click Here for the online issue, the article, Stories Untold is on page 16-18.

Bringing Life to Reading

The 5^th grade literature class has been reading Baba Wagué Diakité’s A Gift from Childhood memoir. Scholars applied the reading strategy, reacting and connecting, while reading the book. We also decided to bring the book to life! After reading the chapter Catching Catfish, scholars taught each other a life skill, similarly to the character Grandma Sabou, who taught her grandson Baba Wagué the essential life skill of catching catfish, which is used both for medicinal purposes and flavorful soup.

5^th grade scholar Robert commented, “It was fun to learn about the different skills my classmates have. I was glad to learn from my classmate, Marianela how to make Arepas, which is a Colombian food.” Marianela also stated that, “it felt good to teach my friends about something so close to my heart.” This assignment was a great opportunity for these young scholars to learn from their grandparents and parents a wide range of handy life skills such as sewing a button, wrapping a present, and how to mail a letter.

Putting on the Director’s Hat

Fifth graders had a chance today to try on their “director’s hats” with the second graders. Breaking into groups, fifth graders took the lead in staging and blocking short fractured fairy tales with the second graders. Fifth graders blocked the skits and gave second graders some helpful acting tips as they rehearsed their scenes. It was a class full of energy, laughter, and lots of creativity!

Win, Lose and Draw

The girls green (5th and 6th grade) basketball team began their season with a win, a loss (only by 1 point) and a tie. The most important part is that everyone on the team has improved their skills. Alyssa has learned to rebound and put the ball right back up, adding points to the scoreboard throughout the game. Cecibel is a versatile player who plays awesome defense, inbounds the ball, grabs rebounds and can dribble in a pinch. Madeline is learning to box out under the basket and Mandy improves her defense with each game. Bea is playing tenacious defense and has been an unrelenting shooter on offense. Sophia is also playing awesome defense and is improving in her ability to get open on offense. Marianella is a great team player who has learned to defend her zone and Karleigh and Madison are improving their defensive skills as well. Ryley, Erin and Elliott are invaluable to us when moving the ball down court, getting that fast break, and passing the ball inside. The best part is that we are playing well as a team and cheering for each other. So win, lose or draw, it’s a win in my book.