Students in the first grade at P.S./M.S. 279 have been taking an imaginary journey through the Bronx as animals to the zoo as part of their CWP residency. As part of a “Process Drama,” where dramatic exercises are used to support various literacy outcomes, the students explored writing from different perspectives. Students entered the imaginary world of the story and then wrote from that point of view, navigating literary concepts from within an imaginary role-play. Critical and creative thinking, literacy and emotional intelligence are engaged as the student seeks to understand and express a point of view of a character.
Robina is writing from the perspective of a baby pug, the animal she changed into when the class went to the Bronx Zoo on their imaginary mission to meet the Wish Bird.
At first, Robina wrote a story from the third-person perspective. After teaching artists Kate Lee and Molly Goldman explained that they were asking her to write as if she were the animal, she not only wrote about a wish the pug had (connecting to the theme of the lesson), she also added descriptive language, exceeding what was asked of her.
