This week's spotlight shines on Mrs. Laurie Holden's fourth-grade students, who participated in an innovative learning activity inspired by two of their peers, Brooklyn Seebeck and Everly Ernzen. These students made a great observation: Bazooka Joe gum wrappers often feature short comics with fortunes that reflect a theme or moral. Using this idea, Mrs. Holden crafted a lesson that had students create their own themed comic strips, mirroring the gum wrappers' storytelling format.
This activity aligns directly with our district's Whole Child Approach to Learning, particularly the strategic action item: "Establish procedures and opportunities for students to access mentoring, career skills, and real-world learning opportunities." Here's how:
Student-Driven Inspiration
: By allowing Brooklyn and Everly's ideas to shape the lesson, Mrs. Holden modeled real-world problem-solving and collaboration. This experience empowered students to think critically about how their observations could influence classroom learning—paralleling real-world scenarios where ideas spark innovation.
Real-World Connections
: The task bridged classroom concepts and practical application, linking literary themes to a real-world product students encounter outside of school.
Creative Expression and Career Skills
: The project required students to think like authors and illustrators—roles central to the publishing and entertainment industries. Through drawing and writing, they practiced storytelling, a skill valuable in countless careers.
Mentorship in Action
: Mrs. Holden acted as a mentor by facilitating the activity while encouraging students to lead with their ideas. Her philosophy—"I am the one with the most experience in fourth grade, but I have never been the smartest in the room"—demonstrates her commitment to fostering a classroom culture of shared learning and growth.
As always, I looked to make sure that students were engaged and excited about the learning activity and tasks. As you can imagine, they very much were:
"I think the students liked to use their own minds to create a comic that showed a theme from their imagination," said Brooklyn.
"I loved being able to use my imagination and pick my own theme," said Everly.
Two other students talked about how they enjoyed the activity because they were able to connect with it personally:
"I liked the assignment because it let me express a theme about my favorite football team, the Green Bay Packers," said Meyer Valenstein.
"I liked that I was able to include drawings to show the theme of my cartoon," said Logan Martinez.
By integrating student ideas and real-world applications, Mrs. Holden's class achieved the learning objectives of understanding themes in literature. It reinforced the district's commitment to nurturing creativity, critical thinking, and lifelong learning skills, specifically around literacy.
Thank you to Mrs. Holden, Brooklyn, and Everly for this great activity and chance for students to write creatively!
