Overcoming Challenges

Does a person's past determine their future success? That is the exact question 6th graders at Gene Pike Middle School had to answer while reading Holes by: Louis Sachar. After reading the book students did research on famous people that have overcome a difficult situation and still become successful. They then created a Haiku Deck presentation to demonstrate their perseverance. Hannah, a 6th grader at Pike said that she immediately thought of Stephen Hawking based on a film she had heard about. She didn't quite know what adversity he had overcome, but knew she wanted to do some research on him. Using Haiku Deck was also new to her, but she was able to collaborate with a classmate and share the things they had learned about this presentation tool so that they both could create a more dynamic product.

                             
                                               Steven Hawking - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires;


                             
                                                     Jay Z - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires;


                             
                                                       Jim Carrey - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires;

After creating the Haiku Decks, Mrs. Morrow had her students break up into groups to share their presentation. The group then needed to collaborate on the common character traits among each of their individual research subjects. These traits were combined with the rest of the groups in the classroom to create one consolidated list. To take it even deeper students did a personality analysis to really dig deep for the character traits that are the most important in overcoming adversity. These students will be able to carry this lesson with them through life as they themselves and/ or people they know are faced with tough times.