PS/IS 686 | Brooklyn, NY

Grade 5 Literary Essayists

https://www.brainpickings.org/2013/04/18/e-b-white-on-egoism-and-the-art-of-the-essay/

E.B.White writes:

The essayist is a self-liberated man, sustained by the childish belief that everything he thinks about, everything that happens to him, is of general interest. He is a fellow who thoroughly enjoys his work, just as people who take bird walks enjoy theirs. Each new excursion of the essayist, each new “attempt,” differs from the last and takes him into new country. This delights him. Only a person who is congenitally self-centered has the effrontery and the stamina to write essays.

essay meaning

I’m proud of who our fifth grade essayists have become through our Literary Essay writing inquiry! It was truly *magic* watching you all learn, listen, ask questions and collaborate alongside your children during our Literary Essay writing share! Now our essayists will forever be able to differentiate between + apply their Personal, Pure and Literary Essayist skills! Thank you, to those of you who were able to make it in person, and to those of you who were not able to make it, (you were with us in spirit) below are tiny glimpses of moments I was able to capture from the share. The photos represent SYMBOLISM (symbolic meaning of what BSI stands for: connection, collaboration, and an open learner mindset – regardless of age) Thank you, for allowing essayists to openly read aloud their essays, to share their thesis and BIG IDEAS, but most of all thank you, for engaging in a meaningful Socratic Seminar style open dialogue/discussion with ALL of our students and enabling them to express and expand their thoughts and ideas, collectively and collaboratively. We loved having you here alongside us! 

A teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary. – Thomas Carruthers

Learning never exhausts the mind. – Leonardo da Vinci

Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death. – Albert Einstein

Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. – Henry Ford

The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn and change.” – Carl Rogers

Cultivate curiosity. If you really want to grow in your lifetime, learn to be as inquisitive as a child. Curious people are never bored, and for them life becomes an unending study of joy. – Tony Robbins

Human making is our mission. 

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