Kol hakavod to the Ramaz second graders for their amazing MiddotMark celebrations! They enacted a fictional “landmark preservation commission hearing” to demonstrate the prototype buildings they designed. Each building represented a midah (value) that the students believe is important for the community, such as “kindness,” “honesty” and “responsibility.” The prototypes were constructed using teamwork and sophisticated architectural strategies learned from their ArchForKids program. At the celebration, the students used public speaking skills to present their own persuasive writing, aiming to convince the “commission” that their building should become a landmark. They advocated for the benefits of their buildings, such as the aesthetic value and how it promotes their important midah in the community. They even took questions from their peers, who played members of the commission, and the audience wrote feedback and cast votes.
As LS Director of General Studies Ms. Adrienne Laitman explained to the audience, this unit embodies the school’s continual goal to combine the learning of skills and concepts with problem solving, creativity and collaboration. The students learned about history and geography through learning about NYC landmarks, including visiting the Empire State Building to examine the views from up high, and taking tours with the UES Historical Society. They read high-level nonfiction texts to increase reading skills. They also developed their writing skills by crafting multi-paragraph persuasive letters for the commission, including learning that, to write persuasively, one must be polite and provide compelling arguments to support their claim. To design and build their prototypes, the students worked in groups and made sure each voice was heard, that they listened to each other, and that they knew when to compromise. In addition to building the real-life models, they created 3D digital models on the computer program TinkerCad in the LS Innovation Lab, which they displayed for their visitors on iPads, and even created artworks depicting the Statue of Liberty and the NYC skyline, on display around the room in a gallery.
