November 8, 2023

Class III held a publishing party to celebrate the end of their personal narrative unit. Students wrote short stories about a memorable event in their life using what they referred to as “the watermelon method.” If a whole day is the watermelon, for example, they focused on writing about a single seed—a small moment out of that day. This allowed them to go into greater detail and explore areas of storytelling that may otherwise get lost when covering too much ground. Students moved about their classrooms, eagerly reading each other’s narratives. In addition, every desk had three post-it notes for three different classmates to write what they appreciated about the way each story was told.