Let it Shine

Teaching someone else to do something is truly rewarding. When they put what you taught into practice and do it well, that is a thing worth celebrating.


In the Listening & Speaking for Academic Success class, students are taught to listen to lectures and take notes, to participate in classroom discussions, to debate academic topics, to give presentations, and to perform in front of an audience.


This term (Spring 2015) I wanted to take the performance component of the class to another level by leveraging it to help prepare the students for professional success by focusing in on their critical thinking skills and helping them to realize what success means to them and how they are going to pursue it. 


The movie, “The Pursuit of Happiness,” starring Will Smith, became the focus of class discussion and the foundation on which the students’ performances were built. The students were given the task of writing their own script, based on the movie, and performing it in front of an audience at the end of the term.


The 20 students in class were divided into four groups with a leader serving as the main author in each group. The group leaders were: Cheeraphan Schneider , Wenjing Huo, Najeebullah Nawazi, and Maria Gomez. The four scripts you are about to read were written by the group leader with the input of the rest of the group.


The plays were recorded and have been posted to YouTube. The links will be shared on a Facebook page titled “Professor Gizelle Ponzillo’s Classes.”


I hope you enjoy reading the scripts and watching the plays as much as my students, several NOCCCD employees, and I have.