East Ridge Middle School (ERMS) seventh grade students who are part of English class Team 2 had an opportunity to write short stories crafted around one of the aspects of PRIDE, a new initiative introduced to the student body this year to promote growth in Personal responsibility, Respect, Integrity, Determination and Excellence.
Toward the end of the first marking period, students in each of the four English classes taught by teacher Elizabeth Misiewicz, who created this learning opportunity, were divided into small groups where they collaborated via Google Docs, a new technology being used with students at ERMS this year, to write their own short stories. Elizabeth Misiewicz chose the short story that best communicated one of the PRIDE themes from each class.
On Monday, November 25, students performed their short plays before judges Allison Stockel, Executive Director of The Ridgefield Playhouse, and Kerry Anne Ducey, President of HamletHub, as well as for the rest of their class team to share the lessons of PRIDE.
Allison and Kerry were honored to judge the creativity of the plays and how well the theme was communicated, then presented award certificates to members of the winning group from the Alpha class: Julia Garret, Rachel Zaslavsky, Oscar Leon and Olivia Bellusci for their play, Mighty Lies, which focused on the PRIDE aspect of "Integrity". The judges also spoke to the students about the importance of writing as an important communications tool. "All of the children wrote very creative short stories which really got the meaning of the acronym PRIDE across," commented Allison Stockel.
The Ridgefield Playhouse is a not-for-profit performing arts center located at 80 East Ridge, parallel to Main Street, Ridgefield, CT. For information on community outreach and shows, call the box office at 203-438-5795, or visit ridgefieldplayhouse.org.
*Alpha class: (L to R) Julia Garret, Rachel Zaslavsky, Oscar Leon and Olivia Bellusci for their play, Mighty Lies.