Seventh Graders Create Projects Based on Resilience

How do we demonstrate resilience? Let us count the ways…

In Alicia Moraitis’s ELA class at Briarcliff Middle School, there are endless creative ways students can show resilience.

Recently, students read “Echo Mountain,” by Lauren Wolk, the best-selling author of “Bright Blue Sea” and “Wolf Hollow.”

After giving several short quizzes to monitor students’ comprehension, Ms. Moraitis skipped the typical comprehension test and instead engaged the students in project-based learning.

“I wanted to give students the opportunity to show that they grasped the meaning of the book, which is about resilience and overcoming challenges,” Ms. Moraitis said. “This allowed me to monitor the staying-power of the book and the thematic connections.”

With the theme of “resilience,” students had to create a project in a medium they enjoy.

“My goal was to merge their natural talents with something connected to the theme,” Ms. Moraitis said. “This type of project encourages creativity and inference. There were no pictures in the book so students had to use their imagination to visualize the story and infer what it was about.”

Students had many choices. They could create: a board game; a diorama of a pivotal scene from the book; an original music composition (one student wrote a song and played it on her piano at home); a collage using magazines; an epilogue to the book; a Keynote presentation on the topic of the Great Depression; a comic strip; or models out of clay or Legos.

One student created a diorama made of papier mâché and plaster; another sewed a doll, and a third created objects out of wax Wikki Stix. Students were also allowed to come up with an idea of their own.

Students presented their projects to the class and had the chance to work on their speaking skills. There is also a gallery walk planned, where students will get a close-up view of all the projects.

“I am so happy with the way this turned out and that they were doing something that they love and connecting it to the book,” Ms. Moraitis said. “They did such a great job! The attention to detail was off the charts!”