This month, sixth graders have been diving into the art of personal narrative, crafting stories that draw on an aspect of their identity, an experience with community building, one of 贝博体育app’s core values, a lesson they’ve learned about leadership, or this year’s school theme of Right Here, Right Now. 在过去的几周里，学生们一直在撰写、编辑、修改这些故事，并将其塑造成他们六年级的演讲，他们将在下周开始的低年级早间会议上发表这些演讲。

六年级学生通过“我是”诗歌来探索他们的激情、价值观和生活经历。 这项活动鼓励学生反思塑造了他们的身份的各个方面，并考虑他们以后可能在演讲中发展的主题。 接下来，学生们将注意力转向个人叙事的类型，分析样本作品并确定定义这种写作风格的关键要素。 一旦学生们选择了他们的主题并起草了他们的个人叙述，低年级英语老师Lara Gleason就会引导他们通过一系列的讲习班来加强他们的演讲。 与同学们一起，学生们改进了写作的重点，突出了清晰表达的想法，并确定了需要更清晰的地方。 然后，他们探索了构建个人叙事的不同方式，超越了简单的时间顺序方法，尝试了围绕中心主题编织迷你课程或以预览开始，然后进入行动等形式。  一个贝博体育app词汇选择的研讨会鼓励学生们使用更生动、更有表现力的语言。 Using the classroom’s Wheel of Emotions, they replaced basic words like happy or sad with more nuanced choices such as courageous or disappointed, enriching their writing with greater depth and meaning.

劳拉教学生们如何通过调整句子结构和使用过渡词来增加写作的多样性和节奏，使写作更流畅。 The class focused on the writer’s craft of “showing, not telling,” using sensory details and rich imagery to draw the listener in. 他们一起集思集益，以生动的方式描述感觉、气味和声音，并分析了作家如何使用这些技巧。 “Since these are speeches that the audience will only hear once, these details are how you connect with the audience on a personal level,” says Lara. “The audience needs to feel and see that story unfolding in their minds.” 

In addition to polishing their speeches with lessons on editing and capitalization, students recorded themselves delivering their speeches, discovering that hearing their own speeches helped them identify things that didn’t make sense or where word choice could be improved. 每个学生在发表演讲之前都有机会和劳拉一起在剧院练习，这样他们就会感到自信和准备好了。

在接下来的几个月里，六年级学生将在低年级早会上两人一组发表演讲。 这可以让那些对公开演讲有信心的学生更早地发表演讲，同时给那些想要更多练习的学生更多的时间。 家庭 will be invited to watch their child’s speech in addition to the 较低的学校 audience. “I think having them present with just one other student in front of this community that loves them is going to feel like a celebration,” says Lara. “I really want them to shine and feel proud of their work.”