Session 4 Week 1 in Review

Elementary Studio

Welcome to Session 4, the shortest session of the year! Although this will be a very quick session, it will be filled with lots of hard work, fun, and reflection! During Session 4 we focus on Mid-action Reviews. Mid-action Reviews are a time when each learner reflects on their work from previous sessions, character strengths, SMART or WOOP goals, and vision boards. Each learner will schedule a meeting with their Dream Team and other guests they would like to be present during their mid-action review. During this meeting, learners will zoom out to look at their work from the previous sessions and share their overall progress with their guests. During this reflection, learners will note how they’ve changed and what they want to change moving forward based on the goals they set at the beginning of the school year. This week, Elementary learners reviewed all of their work so far this school year in preparation for the badge ceremony that will take place during their MAR. They also created 9-11 minute presentations and received feedback from a studio made to ensure their presentation is top-tier!In Story Arts, learners began brainstorming and drafting their Memoirs! Thursday, learners spent time brainstorming about a time when nothing happened, a time when they eat something weird, a time in their favorite place, and a special day they remember. They were given five minutes to brainstorm as many thoughts as possible for each topic. Next, they moved to the pre-writing or drafting stage. During this time, they received ten minutes to all of their brainstorming ideas into sentences. The goal was to get as many thoughts as possible on their page to help create quality work. Next week, we will begin revising and editing their memoirs.During Civilization, we discussed the Ming Dynasty in China. As a group, learners wrote a proposal to the emperor to save the empire! The challenge was to write a proposal convincing the Guide to agree to their terms. They were able to write a letter explaining why the emperor should continue trading with the outside world, create a slideshow presentation show casting the benefits of trade and teamwork, or draw a collage of pictures to represent all of the benefits of trade and teamwork and each picture had to include a brief description explaining its relationship to trade.

Middle School Studio

Session 4 is such a unique session being that it is only 3 weeks long. That puts us at ⅓ of the way through after the first week! While Session 4 is short, it’s packed with much to do! We had two learner-led launches this week by Brayden and Frida, who both did a great job. Learners are really digging into their badge plans this week to see where they’re at and what they want to wrap up before Mid-Action Reviews (MAR). Friday was the deadline to turn in any work for badges that learner’s want to be awarded at their MARs, and my inbox was full with tons of assignments being turned in!For Quest this session, learners are going through the Mid-Action Review process. MARs are a time for learners to step back mid-year and reflect on what they set out to do at the beginning of the year, which goals they already achieved, what’s left to accomplish, and what changes, if any, they want to make moving forward into the second semester. This week, learners worked on coordinating their Dream Team’s schedules in order to get their 30 minute Mid-Action Review meeting scheduled. Then they started “assembling badges”, which is going through their Google Classroom assignments and confirming which challenges have been completed and which badges have been fully earned. As we move into next week, learners will begin building their 10 minute presentations that they will deliver to their Guide and Dream Teams at their MAR.Session 5 Civilization is all about The Renaissance! With it being such a short session, we went with a slightly different format than usual. Learners chose a specific person, event, or aspect of The Renaissance period to study and will complete a mini-project on their topic. They will self-direct their Civ time over the three weeks to do the necessary research and build out their project, which is due in week 3. This week learners chose their topics and projects, had them approved by the Guide, and are now in the research phase, which they will continue next week!The Story Arts badge this session is Writing for TV. This week, learners were introduced to their challenge: to write a 15-20 minute pilot episode of a new TV show that will be streamed on a popular streaming platform. Learners read the ideas for two different show ideas and chose which show they would like to write their pilot episode for. Next, they created an outline for the storyline of their episode, which includes what characters, settings, and events will take place in each individual scene!

High School Studio

The excitement for winter break is in the air this week in the High School Studio; although Session 4 will be a quick three weeks, learners are packing a lot of reflection and new, deep learning into studio time. This week, two learners facilitated a morning launch. One learner chose the topic of service animals, while the other’s launch was about the human brain and heart. Learners discussed their feelings about giving peers feedback versus giving themselves feedback during this week’s Circle, and the school-wide Town Hall on Thursday concluded with a vote to formalize an Earth Club.In place of a Quest exhibition project, this Session is all about the Mid-Action Reviews (or MARs). The Mid-Action Reviews give learners the opportunity to look back on the plans they set at the beginning of the year, assess the work they have completed so far, and refocus their goals on the second half of the year. Learners will share what they set out to do, what they accomplished, and what they hope to achieve in the coming year during their individual 30 minute Mid-Action Reviews with their parents, guide, and Dream Teams. Learners began working on their presentations and setting up their schedules for the Mid-Action Reviews during Quest time this week.The Civilization topic for this session is Freedom of Speech. This week, the studio discussed what freedom of speech means, what limitations to free speech exist throughout the world, and began to dive into questions such as “should free speech be a universal human right?” For their challenge, learners selected a country to focus on, researching the history of free speech laws in that country, as well as studying a contemporary case example related to free speech in that country. Over the next few weeks, we will continue to dissect specific examples from an ethical and legal perspective, and discuss the differences between free speech and hate speech.The Story Arts unit this session is all about creative writing, with a different medium of creative writing being focused on each week. This week was about poetry. Learners discussed their experiences both writing and reading poetry, and noted how poetry is similar and dissimilar to other forms of writing. The studio learned about the current U.S. poet laureate, Ada Limon, and worked from one of her prompts to create their own poem about an animal that they feel connected to. Next week we will dive into flash fiction (ultra short stories), and the following week we will examine memoirs and personal narratives.All in all, a packed first week of what will be a very brief session!