Students in US II Honors learned about the role of music in the Civil Rights Movement. Working in stations, students listened to songs like "We Shall Overcome," "This Little Light of Mine," and "A Change is Gonna Come" and discussed how Freedom Songs originated from the African American experience and why they were such powerful tools for organization and messaging.
Students in US I are creating museum exhibits on the Civil War. Each exhibit will center on an artifact of the war that connects to a larger topic including important people, battles, strategy, etc. Students will research their artifact and topic and create a narrative of the war for their exhibit based on that research.
Students in Evidence Based Argumentation are completing a unit on Lincoln Douglas style debates before moving on to their final unit. As a culminating project, students have chosen to focus on Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Students will examine different genocides and, using evidence, address the question, “Is it fair and equitable to compare genocides?” Students will create a Weebly site to display their research and their response to the prompt using the skills they have acquitted throughout the course.
This month, 9th graders in Media Literacy and the Civic Action Project are jumping into the research phrase of their projects. Topics include—outdoor classrooms, sportsmanship guidelines specifically around treatment of referees, functionality of the Learning Commons, pollution in seaside communities to name a few!
We are also excited to report that a project from the first semester has been very successful. Scarlet Lee and Cate Vendt began researching mental health in schools, which led them to the solution of a comfort animal as a new resource for responding to and improving mental health in schools. The pair reached out to neighboring communities who utilize comfort animals and were able to invite Officer Sutera of the Gloucester Police department and his dog, Ace, to the school for an interview. Officer Sutera informed them of the monetary challenges that Gloucester faced and that grants were very helpful in securing Ace. The two created a grant proposal for Chief Todd Fitzgerald. On April 16, the Select Board approved the use of the comfort animal for the police department. The school committee will vote on the use of the comfort dog at the May meeting. Special thanks to the Class of 2024 for their class gift to help with the cost!
Great job, Scarlet and Cate! Their research and actions embody the true spirit of the Civic Action Project!
