To culminate their Lower School experience, Grade 6 students conducted oral histories with people they admired and shared their stories in narrative essays and collages, a project that inspired them to think more deeply about Landon's Core Values.
“It was a good mix of different things like research and art and writing. It was a really nice blend,” said Miles ’30.
At Landon, the highest grade in each division has a culminating experience. In the Middle School, Form II students write “This I Believe” speeches, and in the Upper School, Form VI students participate in Senior Capstone Projects of their choice.
"This is the first capstone event for our Grade 6 students as leaders of the Lower School division,” said Grade 6 Dean and Art Teacher Dori Boyce. “For the Grade 6 Capstone, our goal was to provide students with the chance to listen to the life experiences of others, effectively communicate their stories, and connect these narratives with Landon's Core Values.”
First, boys visited museums in Washington, D.C. to learn more about how history is preserved through narrative and visual storytelling. Then, they chose an important person in their life to interview.
“We learned a lot about the importance of talking with people who we value. It allowed us to learn about what is important to them and helped us identify how we hope to act and live out Landon’s values in our own lives,” said Samir ’30.
“It was a fun project and experience to learn about someone you know,” said Grant ’30. “I [interviewed] my grandma, and it was interesting to learn some facts about her life that I didn’t know. I wanted to learn more about her life as a scientist. She was a chemist.”
Students asked questions about their interviewee’s life to learn about the important places, people, and events that shaped their lives.
“When our teacher asked us to pick a core value that represents our person, the one I picked was perseverance,” Grant added. “I picked perseverance because my grandma always persevered through challenges.”
After the interviews, students wrote a narrative essay about their person. The boys then created collages before hosting a Gallery Walk for Grade 6 families.
“We cut images out of magazines that represented our person’s life and journey. We looked for visuals to represent the people, places, and events we learned about while interviewing our person,” said Jack ’30.
“We worked really hard for it. It was satisfying when we got to the end and all these people came to view our works and congratulate us and read our notes and learn about our person,” said Huntting ’30.
Families visited with the students during the gallery walk to learn more about their projects.
“You witnessed the incredible teamwork displayed by this Grade 6 group through their collaborative Ancient Tomb project,” said Boyce to families in attendance. “While that same spirit of collaboration was evident as the boys searched for images for the collages, peer-edited papers, and hung the works in the gallery, what you see today is primarily the result of individual effort."
