MONTVALE—Memorial Elementary School second-grade reading teacher Ariane Giannone was sure the project would resonate with the grade’s approximately 100 students and their families.
Not to say there weren’t butterflies.
“It was super, super cute, and successful—everyone was like, please work.”
And so it came to pass that at a lively Montvale Public Schools Board of Education meeting on Feb. 26, at Fieldstone Middle School, a group of Memorial Elementary School second-grade students presented on their fall experience of Giannone’s faculty team invention, “Character Con,” a celebratory event at the heart of a reading unit on character studies.
The festive day taking its name from Comic Con — Giannone describes herself as a huge Marvel nerd — saw the school’s second-graders dressed as their favorite literary characters, from Dr. Seuss icons to Dog Man to Fancy Nancy to Scaredy Squirrel and from “Dork Diaries.”
More than that, they’d considered their characters’ back stories and the central problem their character faced in the book.
They became fluent in why.
Giannone said “Our students enjoyed exploring how characters can change and grow. They were able to fully immerse themselves into their favorite characters and make connections to their own lives.”
Dressed as their characters, the students talked about the worlds of wonder they’d sprung from. Giannone described it as “a creative celebration of their reading comprehension and analysis.”
And she said students enjoyed interacting with each other in character, “further exploring the traits and interests of various literary figures.”
She said, “If you’re going to pretend to be them you need to know them really well. The growth of characters — we asked them to dig deeper when they read their books, make predictions, note character traits, and think about What if you were in their shoes? What would you have done?”
Moreover, in costume, they hosted the kindergarten and first grades and — just like for fans at New York Comic Con (“a fan convention dedicated to Western comics, graphic novels, anime, manga, video games, cosplay, toys, movies, and television”) — they gave autographs and answered questions about their characters.
“You want to get people you’e reading it to excited about the book. These kids had so much fun with it, and they really got it,” Giannone said.
The unit primed them for weeks of nonfiction study. “It really does a 180, with real facts and research and things like that. It was a real celebration, analyzing and presenting these characters; because for the next few months we step away from that,” Giannone said.
She and another reading teacher are relatively new to the school; the other four are very familiar with the unit, and were way supportive, Giannone said.
At the Feb. 26 school board meeting, president Ernie DiFiore said, “Seeing the students so passionate about reading and fully engaged with their stories brought Character Con to life.”
After the presentations, Erik Parks, principal of Memorial Elementary School, congratulated the students on their diligence, thanked the teachers for creating such an imaginative learning experience, and thanked the parents for their enthusiastic support.
The students were excited to not only present in front of the Board of Education, but also in front of Ghassali, who said, “I was so impressed by the students. Events like Character Con foster a love of reading and learning for children. I loved it.”
Giannone told Pascack Press the reading team hopes to continue the tradition for years to come.
Oh, the places you’ll go when you follow the meeting agenda…
On Feb. 26 the school board also lauded bookkeeper Janet Breen, in the service of the school district since March 1, 1990, on her retirement after 34 years of exemplary service.
And, among housekeeping items and other resolutions, it accepted with appreciation a generous $4,000 donation from the Montvale Athletic League for items to be used by the Fieldstone Middle School Track and Field extracurricular program.
It also accepted, with appreciation, a $1,000 Ruth Levy Memorial Scholarship grant from the Montvale Educational Foundation.