Ms. Shalondria White’s 3rd Grade Reading/Language Arts & Social Studies classes have been studying “Ordinary People, Doing Extraordinary Things.” They kicked off the unit with a video that highlighted different people throughout our history who have achieved great feats after many failures, such as Albert Einstein, who didn’t speak until he was 4 years old, but became a world-renown mathematician. They even had some visits from local heroes, such as Hayden Hooper, author and children’s advocate, and the Brownsville Police Department and a police dog, who are community helpers.

Their culminating project consisted of students conducting independent research on someone in history they didn’t know much about by locating and reading informational text and taking notes on a graphic organizer. They used their listening, speaking, and writing skills to present their information to an audience of their peers and family members. In addition, the students had the opportunity to be creative by enhancing their poster display with key details about the person’s major contributions to society and education.