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Year 3 hold out for a hero

We all need someone we look up to, a fact our Year 3 students highlighted to their parents this week when they presented their role model of choice at the Snapshot into Learning exhibition.

As part of their latest unit of inquiry into Who We Are, Ms Laumberg and Mr Robson’s Year 3 students have been exploring the central idea: Heroes and role models inspire us and set examples for us to follow. They pursued the following lines of inquiry: What are the qualities and characteristics of a hero and a role model? What is the connection between role models and history? How does our choice of hero or role model reflect our lives and influence our behaviours?

What’s a role model, Ms Laumberg and Mr Robson asked Year 3?

Well, said Year 3, it’s someone we look up to and who has a positive influence on us. And perhaps it’s someone who sets an inspiring example for us to follow.

Okay, said Ms Laumberg and Mr Robson, do role models have to be famous?

Hmmm, said Year 3. That’s a hard one! Maybe our role models could be ordinary people who influence us in a positive way at home or at School. But they must have certain characteristics. For example, they need to be kind and friendly, and intelligent and approachable.

To encourage Year 3 to reflect long and hard about suitable role models, Ms Laumberg and Mr Robson set about helping the students to create a Year 3 Role Model Hall of Fame.

To qualify, they had to be a person who’d made an impact in her chosen field – sport, business, politics, music, art etc. And they had to embody at least one of the PYP Learner Attribute Profiles – inquirers, knowledgeable, thinkers, communicators, principled, open minded, caring, risk takers, balanced, reflective. Year 3 decided suitable role models included women like Turia Pitt, Cathy Freeman, Greta Thunberg, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Mahatma Ghandi.

To widen their thinking about role models, Year 3 went home and interviewed their parents about their chosen role models. They included Winston Churchill, Michael Jordan and Fred Hollows.

To think more deeply about the connection between role models and history, Year 3 examined old photos of ����AV to find out how the School has changed over time. This prompted them to venture around the campus, taking a closer look at individual buildings and comparing them to the photos to see how they’ve evolved. It made them wonder why they’d changed in the first place and who’d made the decision to change them. After much debate, they concluded that influential people, such as past (and current) ����AV Principals – or perhaps the ����AV Parents’ Association – had decided to change the buildings in order to improve them.

Year 3 were then tasked with choosing their own role model. How they chose to display their project was totally up to them. After experimenting with green screen technology, some students decided to make a video for their final projects. Others opted to make posters, games, books or PowerPoint presentations.

On Tuesday, parents were invited along to the piazza for the Year 3 Snapshot into Learning. It was fantastic to see who each student had chosen as their role model. There were quite a few who had chosen Ms Laumberg (well done Ms Laumberg!). She got to rub shoulders with the likes of Miley Cyrus, Coco Chanel, Eleanor Roosevelt and Simone Biles, as well as some of the Year 3 mums and dads!

Parents were invited to go around the room and chat to students. After reviewing their projects, parents selected a Learner Attribute Profile card that best described each student’s role model. It was great to see Year 3 present to parents with confidence and authority on their chosen person.

In the words of Maya Angelou, “How important it is for us to recognise and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!”

Bravo Year 3!