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COURIER photo/Landus Rigsby
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| One of the 13 finalists that gave an oral presentation before hundreds of people on the Vista del Valle Elementary School outdoor stage, 4th grader Elisabeth Iniquez took on the role of Anne Frank and gave a short biography of the Holocaust victim. The project was a requirement for all 135 upper graders to enhance reading, writing and speaking skills. |
Vista students step in famous shoes
American author Nelle Harper Lee—who is known for winning a Pulitzer Prize for her novel To Kill a Mockingbird in 1960—has been quoted as saying “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view.”
Last Friday at Vista del Vallle Elementary School, 13 upper graders had the opportunity to step into the shoes of famous and notable individuals as the 4th through 6th graders gave special presentations before the entire school as the characters that they represented.
The project—which was required for all 135 upper graders—was coordinated by Vista 5th/6th-grade teacher Pat Holbrook and represents the school’s efforts to offer its students more opportunities to exhibit public speaking.
“This year, Mr. Yeager wanted the teachers to have the kids do more oral presentations,” Ms. Holbrook explained. “This is something that I’ve done off and on, but this gives the kids a chance to work on their oral skills, develop more of an academic language, and also gives them the chance to become more comfortable with speaking in public.”
The oral presentation was a two-part occasion for the participating students as not only did they present information on the people they represented but the Vista upper graders also performed in character with some students wearing costumes.
Having Vista students being able to communicate effectively through both writing and voice is something that Vista Principal Ley Yeager hopes his students learn during their time at the school and skills that he hopes they use and continue to develop in the future.
“We really want them to be able to express themselves in writing, reading and to use their voices to say what they want to say,” Principal Yeager said. “This is part of their citizenship training here at Vista and they need to be able to speak [publicly] and be able to get past the fear of doing so.”
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COURIER photo/Landus Rigsby
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| Wearing a blue and white Nun Habit costume, Vista del Valle Elementary School 5th grader Bethlehem Martinez shared the story of Mother Teresa before peers, parents, teachers and school staff as part of an oral presentation showcase featuring 13 finalists out of a pool of 135 upper graders. |
Ariel and Jordynn counted as one finalist due to the 6th graders working together on their Kerri Walsh/Misty May-Treanor project, who also were on an Olympic championship women’s volleyball team in Athens, Greece for the 2004 Olympics.
“[Jordynn] is my best friend so we wanted to do something together,” Kerri said. “Plus, Kerri Walsh and Misty Mae-Treanor are partners and Jordynn and I like volleyball so we decided to do it.”
Dressed in white and bearing the resemblance to a young Mother Teresa, Bethlehem Martinez had read and heard about some of the late Catholic nun’s life, but the oral presentation project allowed her to learn even more about the notable figure as she did her research.
“I knew about her but I didn’t know very much,” the 5th grader said. “I learned that she felt her baptism was more important than her birthday and I also learned that she wasn’t about making a lot of money. The money that she had, she would spend it on the poor.”
Not only did the project allow students to write and speak, but many of the students also incorporated posters into their presentations that featured their artistic abilities. Vista 6th grader Faith Butterfield drew a portrait of her subject Georgia O’Keeffe, capturing the deceased American artist in her older years, dressed in black.
“This is one of my favorite assemblies,” Faith said. “I really enjoyed the biography presentation.”
Though some of the students encountered being initially nervous when they started speaking in character, as the presentation continued they became more comfortable.
“It was scary at first but my mom was standing in the back and I just pretended like I was talking to her the whole time,” Eustacio Rodriguez said.
In order to make students more comfortable with expressing themselves in a public setting, there are plans to have more similar presentations throughout the school year for the students. Ms. Holbrook believes that the experience that Vista students gain from the oral presentations is just as important as the other subject matter taught in the classroom.
“Because of NCLB, teachers always have choices to make,” she said. “To do something like this, we have to maybe stop what we’re doing in our classrooms for a week. But something like this is just as important for the students and they fall under the content standards anyway.”
—Landus Rigsby
