Today, we started reading groups. I’ve been very excited about this because, even though it’s a small group, I get to lead teach them, and I really enjoy literature.
Now that we have had our first day, I am even more excited! The groups have been made according to ability, but not strictly determined by or limited to that. I have a group of four mid-range ability students. However, I can already sense great things coming from these guys. These four guys always have an opinion or inference about something so I know our discussions will be great, and probably more challenging for me to accommodate them then for them to contribute. I really believe we will all push each other.
Since this was our first day, I allowed them to come up with some rules and guidelines specifically for OUR reading group. Not just, “Mr. Cooper’s Group.” A couple of great ideas they came up with were to have sticky notes present for observations during reading group, and establish an order at the beginning of each meeting so everyone gets a chance to read, and they will know when they read. After those great ideas and more, I knew I probably wouldn’t need to worry about my ideas, but I gave them a few guidelines that I believe should always be explicitly stated in this kind of intimate setting where we can feel vulnerable reading aloud and sharing ideas and inferences: Respect for the reader/speaker. Respect for others ideas, although it is okay to politely disagree. Complete our lit circle jobs for the week (literary luminary, connector, summarizer, vocab enricher, and illustrator). And finally, but very important, keep an open mind about what we are reading.
Next, we dove right into the middle of the story. Nope, that’s not a typo. The first two pages we read were 66 pages into the book. One of our current main focuses in reading is “conflict/resolution.” This excerpt had a great short example of that to get them ready to identify the main conflict once we began reading from the beginning. I also selected this excerpt because it was a pretty intense moment in the novel and I knew it would grab their attention, and hopefully get them excited about the book. The guys quickly identified the conflict and how it was resolved, and we are now off to the races with chapter 1!
This novel will also be a great connection for the Bill of Rights unit we are on in SS right now. I can't wait till one of them makes that text-to-world connection!
Here is a link to our novel Among the Hidden, by Margaret Haddix:
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