Week 3: Building Classroom Community with American Portrait | A Month of Mindfulness and Student Empowerment

Bring PBS’ American Portrait, a national storytelling project, into your classroom this school-year! Through the use of weekly prompts, and exemplar submissions from across the nation, you and your students will be able to partake in a series of classroom discussions and journaling activities, that will aid in fostering a strong classroom community. 

1. Choose a prompt from the provided options, each week.
2. Watch, view and/or read 2-3 of the provided American Portrait submissions with students for the prompt selected, in the media gallery above. 
3. Empower students (and educators) to share out their response, using the American Portrait prompt as a sentence starter.
4. Students and adults can stand in a circle.
   • You may refer to the Center for Restorative Process for tips on facilitating group discussion circles.

Note: You can modify as needed for remote learning and social distancing recommendations.

You can find an extension activity and handouts in the support materials section. 

Access the other Month of Mindfulness media galleries here: 

Week 1: Building Classroom Community with American Portrait | A Month of Mindfulness

Week 2: Building Classroom Community with American Portrait | A Month of Mindfulness

Week 4: Building Classroom Community with American Portrait | A Month of Mindfulness

Final Reflection: Building Classroom Community with American Portrait | A Month of Mindfulness