Grade 7: Enriched Learning in DC
Seventh graders fresh from their epic adventure to Washington, DC, are hard at work on their culminating project, “Sacred Spaces, Sacred Places.” The assignment focuses on an aspect of the trip that was personally meaningful or impactful. They have two weeks to research and complete the project, which is a joint assignment from their history and English teachers. At our nation’s capital, there was plenty of inspiration. All last week, students and chaperones visited historic sites like Gettysburg and other significant places like the Holocaust Museum. During the trip, seventh graders were encouraged to think about how their travels through the memorials, museums, battlefields and cemeteries was impacting them and to record their thoughts in a journal.
Seventh graders fresh from their epic adventure to Washington, DC, are hard at work on their culminating project, “Sacred Spaces, Sacred Places.” The assignment focuses on an aspect of the trip that was personally meaningful or impactful. They have two weeks to research and complete the project, which is a joint assignment from their history and English teachers. At our nation’s capital, there was plenty of inspiration.
All last week, students and chaperones visited historic sites like Gettysburg and other significant places like the Holocaust Museum. During the trip, seventh graders were encouraged to think about how their travels through the memorials, museums, battlefields and cemeteries was impacting them and to record their thoughts in a journal.
“Everyone was really moved by the 9-11 memorial at the Pentagon and the way it was designed to honor the victims,” shares history teacher Beth Gaffga.
Stops at the various presidential memorials were termed “study visits” where students examined the person’s life and impact on our society, for example Jefferson and human rights, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the role of government, etc. The war memorials were studied as well and students noted somber differences between the World War 2 memorial celebrating victory and the Vietnam memorial depicting resilience.
Mailin Thompson was inspired by a pair of shoes she discovered at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. An artist had painted them with Obama’s face and the words “Change” and “Yes, we can.”
“I want to do my project on how Americans use their right to free speech to protest and bring change,” says Mailin. “I plan to design a pair of shoes to represent topics I care about and that I think need to be protested.”
For her project, Addie Brown selected the inscription at the Lincoln Memorial, “I have a dream.”
“My research is on Anna Arnold Hedgeman, who was the only woman organizer of the March on Washington where Dr. King gave his ‘I have a dream’ speech,” explains Addie. “I wanted to focus on her because I’m an advocate for women’s rights.”
Rob Jacoby is interested in Native American history and culture, so he selected the Battle of Little Big Horn, also known as Custer’s Last Stand. He learned more about this event at the National Museum of the American Indian and he is designing an art project to symbolize the battle. He plans to include the names of the treaties that were broken by Custer and statistics about the casualties.
Prior to the trip, seventh graders enjoyed a visit from Governor John Hickenlooper and Senator Michael Bennett, who spoke about democracy and the relationship between state and federal governments. Although Congress was not in session during the trip, they met with staff from Cory Gardner’s office and learned about different types of jobs in DC. They also elected to examine the Equality Act (“Should Congress pass a law amending the Civil Rights Act to include protections based on sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity?”) and participated in workshops on lawmaking before engaging in a mock Congress debate.
Other highlights of the trip were advisory dinners in Georgetown, watching the changing of the guard at Arlington National Cemetery, a day on the battlefield at Gettysburg, and a night at the theatre.
Graland Country Day School
Graland Country Day School is a private school in Denver, Colorado, serving students in preschool, kindergarten, elementary, and middle school. Founded in Denver in 1927, Graland incorporates a rich, experiential learning approach in a traditional classroom setting, emphasizing the development of globally and socially conscious leaders who excel academically.
