SCVi charter school officials are inviting the community to time travel back to the roaring 1920s as students present a special performance based on their learning experience about that decade.

“We welcome the whole community to join us as our learners take us back to the Roaring ’20s,” said Matt Watson, upper school director for SCVi Charter School, iLEAD’s founding school. “The celebration is the culmination of countless hours of hard work and creativity that these young men and women have poured into their projects. It is sure to be a wildly entertaining and educational experience for everyone.”

The performances will be presented twice on Tuesday, Feb. 24: The first is scheduled 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. and the second is scheduled 5 to 7 p.m. The community is welcome to attend both presentations, but those who attend the 1:30 p.m. presentation will need to check in for a visitor pass at the SCVi office before proceeding to the campus’ Shakespeare theater. SCVi is located at 28060 Hasley Canyon Road, Suite 200, in Castaic.

The presentation will feature performance art, poetry and dance exhibitions — including the Charleston — by students performing in character and in period attire. The event, which culminates two months of preparation by students, reflects the tuition-free iLEAD Schools’ inquiry-based, hands-on approach to learning, designed to create an environment in which children “learn to learn.” 

“Our projects are all about giving our learners these real-life experiences that will be applicable when they are adults,” said Cheryl Sena, a teacher who facilitates humanities learning for SCVi’s 9th and 10th graders. “The projects feature ‘driving questions,’ and they are all about the process that the learner goes through — collaboration, encountering road blocks and coming up with solutions.”

The driving question for the 9th graders was, “How does a generation shape history, and how is an individual shaped by history?” The 9th graders examined the 1920s from an American perspective, either researching real people who lived during the period or creating fictional characters to represent life in the ’20s.

The 10th graders examined the 1920s from a European perspective, which, Sena said, was a much different experience than the American one. The students examined industrialism, imperialism and the lingering effects of World War I on Europe in the 1920s. Their driving question was, “How is an epoch both the best and worst of times?”

“It truly has been an immersive project, Sena said. “For example, we spent a whole day speaking in 1920s slang.”

Some of the students, Sena said, have patterned their presentations after the Laguna Beach “Pageant of the Masters,” a type of performance in which they re-create paintings and sculptures and act them out. “What they have done is called a freeze frame, and it’s them frozen in time in a picture — and they come to life.”

SCVi offers project-based K-12 curriculum and student-led assessment with global and culturally diverse influences. The tuition-free charter school emphasizes an inquiry-based, learner-centered approach to education. SCVi’s primary goal is to help learners lead a successful and fulfilled life while contributing to the world around them.

More information about SCVi and iLEAD Schools is available at the website.