Presentation Day at ISLA Academy, February 2017
Third Presentation Day ISLA Academy in February 2017
ISLA Academy held Presentation Day for their third Unit of Inquiry on Thursday, February 2, 2017. Presentation Day is a chance for students to share their latest personal and class projects with their families and the community.
At ISLA Academy, students learn using the inquiry cycle. Every six weeks, the students focus their learning on a unique Central Idea, based on grade-level science and social studies standards. Working alongside a professor, students design and plan their own six-week projects, each one seeking to show the community the student’s understanding of the Unit’s Central Idea.
When studying a Central Idea, students are taught how to develop their own questions about the topic. They are encouraged to find the connections between the Unit content and their own lives. In addition to choosing the focus of their inquiry, they also play a role in the selection of their mode of presentation. This is especially important, as it allows for students to display their understanding using a variety of learning styles.
Once the focus of the project is selected, students write a ‘Driving Question’. This question is what drives the research and investigation of the project. Examples of strong driving questions include “Could the world ever adopt a universal language?”, “What can we learn from the fall of the Mayan Civilization?”, “How can someone become a billionaire?” “Why do I need to wear a bicycle helmet?”, and “How do we move big things?” Students and teachers use backward-design to plan the research and learning necessary to answer the driving questions.
Examples of the different ways that students have presented their learning include designing a board game, creating an educational online app, giving a TedTalk, writing and performing their own play, spoken-word poem, or rap-battle, designing an aquaponics system, or starting their own business.
Each Presentation Day, we see continued growth in our students’ learning, self-management, public speaking, research skills, and ability to make connections across subject areas. We welcome the entire community to come out and take the opportunity to meet our very talented students and to ask them challenging questions about their inquiries.
The next Presentation Day is scheduled for Thursday, March 16, 2017 from 1-3 pm.
More about ISLA Academy
ISLA Academy offers high-quality education for PreK to Grade 12 at their campus located in Cabarete-Sosua on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. ISLA Academy is a unique offering to the private, international schools of the Dominican Republic, providing a rigorous, inquiry-based curriculum taught primarily in English, with an experienced team of internationally certified teachers from eight different countries.
