Our learners show us above outstanding levels of independence, accountability, and initiative within the studio – but the big differences are seen when Acton learners go out and engage with the real world.
Recently, learners from Acton Academy Port Saint Lucie travelled to a courtroom in West Palm Beach.
A homeschool group of children was putting on a mock trial of the Big Bad Wolf vs the Three Little Pigs in the Historic Courthouse.
Our Acton learners – R and K – were present to serve as jurors.
The trial was enjoyable, with funny dialogue and delightful acting from both the defense and prosecution. The performers had clearly put a lot of hard work into memorizing their lines and practicing their assigned roles.
R was laughing and thoroughly engaged throughout, so I assumed he liked the experience.
But when I asked what he thought of being a juror, he replied, “I didn’t like it.”
He objected:
“The adults had clearly created the whole thing. As a juror,
I didn’t even get to discuss my opinions and the facts, the
teacher told us how to vote! I want to be independent in
how I think and create.”
Acton learners refuse to be passive receivers of knowledge and demand to have a voice in the world around them.
Acton Academy PSL lets your child become a creator of their educational experience.
TRY THIS AT HOME:
Let your child practice expressing themselves with this silly game, which can be verbally played with younger learners and written by older learners.
- One player starts off with a sentence starter. For example, “I can jump that high if…”
- The players go back and forth with suggestions of how to end the sentence. For example, “I can jump that high if I was sitting on a giraffe’s head!”
- Go back and forth until no-one can out-top the last one or you feel ready for a new starter.
Try to surprise your child with silly or exaggerated suggestions, role modeling for them that they can get as wild as their imagination allows.
Take turns creating sentence starters, like:
- The dog was so tall that….
- She was so surprised that…
- The house was so crooked that…
- The bike was so broken that…
- He was so happy that…
[TIPS: Stop yourself from correcting or editing your child’s answers. Allow their thoughts to be free and uncensored, especially if your elementary school child is writing answers and has spelling or grammatical errors. Focus on holding space for the fun and creativity of the activity.]
