Student Learning Experiences
MIDDLE SCHOOL
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Zaria Jankelowitz-Gelvan and Manuela Lietaer (Grade 6) explain what an Entry Point is and what happened during the Entry Point on Curiosity:
An Entry Point is an activity that all Middle School does when starting a new IMYC unit. The idea is to welcome the students into whatever it is that their lessons will be focused around in the weeks to come. Whether it be Grade 8 doing Interpretation, Grade 7 doing Resilience or Grade 6 doing Adaptability, they all have an Entry Point to their new unit.
For our Entry Point to Consequences we had to try and create something that would protect our egg from breaking. The goal of the Entry Point was to try to protect an egg, using only 2 straws, 10 pieces of tape, 2 paper plates, 5 pieces of recycled paper and a peg. This all came in a plastic bag, which, if you realized, you could also incorporate into the list of materials. For the students to feel more responsibility in protecting the eggs, the eggs were given names: Bob, Sir, and Stay Alive were all common names. In the end, not many eggs survived and the class 6A was named worst egg protecting class in the history of Verdala - though the consequence of not making a good enough protection was clear. In other words...the egg broke.
Big Idea: Resilience by Nour Shangruni (Grade 7)
This year in Grade 7 my favorite topic was ‘Resilience’. Hearing other people’s stories made me think, “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass by. It’s about learning to dance in the rain.” So when there is an obstacle in your life you need to find a way to adapt to the obstacle whilst staying positive. A great example of resilience happened in Middle School this year. Our Grade 7 class organised Walk for Wildlife, which was a walk outside. It rained not only once, but twice, and we had to adapt to the rain and reorganize the days and details. In the end it was marvelous. This unit teaches everyone to make sure you are always open to change and ready to be resilient to anything, anytime.
Big Idea: Interpretation (First World War) by Vince Bányai (Grade 8)
During our IMYC unit of Interpretation, we have been learning about World War One in History class. There are quite a few ways in which this topic can be linked to the big idea of Interpretation. However, in my opinion the most important of these, is how certain factors influenced the way people interpreted / viewed the war, and the events surrounding it. Such aspects include one’s educational experiences, geographic location, job or profession.
Firstly, despite having the same race, two groups of people could have had very different interpretations of WWI, due to their geographic location. For example, the Serbs living in Austria-Hungarian territory had varying opinions to those living in Serbia. The ANZAC forces consisted of soldiers from parts of the world where the war would normally not have affected them but were still forced to fight simply because they were subjected to British Imperialism. Therefore, they had to suffer and work for a cause that wasn’t their own and couldn’t associate with, far away from their homeland. As a result, they had different views of the war to that of native British soldiers, despite the fact that they fought on the same side.
Another thing that affected how people looked at the war was their professions. A soldier, for instance, who had been in the trenches, fought on the battlefield, most probably viewed the war as something completely negative, that claimed many of his friends’ lives and brought endless horrors. However, a firearm engineer would see the fighting as a source of income and opportunity.
As evident from the examples above, many things could affect how a person viewed the war. These include, gender, race, socio-economic position, education, and many more. We all interpret events around us differently and there is no right or wrong perception. Overall, I think that WWI was a great topic for our unit of Interpretation and I really enjoyed it.