Second graders took to the fresh air on the front lawn in front of Danforth Hall to practice their interview skills and get to know a friend at the same time! Since Lower School cohorts are kept small and don’t mix, students haven’t had the chance to get to know students in other cohorts on campus yet. Second Grade Homeroom Teachers Kristen Witzman and Maggie Kraushaar saw an opportunity to enable interaction between the cohorts in a safe, socially-distant way as part of their project-based learning social studies curriculum.
Students, masked and at a safe social distance, interviewed friends from the other cohort. They asked each other questions to get to know one another, such as “what holidays do you celebrate?” They took notes during the interview and then drafted a paragraph summarizing what they learned about their friend. Students in the distance learning program also participated in the virtual environment. They provided written answers to an interview questionnaire, and a fellow virtual student read through their answers and wrote a paragraph about them.
