6th Grade
7th/8th Grade
High School
6th grade has taken a dive into “The Giver” following on the heels of their “Utopia Pamphlet” project. They’ve been really enjoying the twists and turns in the novel and have been offering terrific insight into the themes of the novel. It’s always encouraging to hear “can we please read today?” when they hit the door in the morning and that great attitude shows no signs of stopping!
7th/8th grade has graduated from reading short stories by Ray Bradbury to one of his masterpieces, Fahrenheit 451. This book has been challenging in a lot of ways, but has also led to some very interesting discussions about what Bradbury got right about the future in which we live with our access to media and technology and it has allowed us to discuss how some of the the things Bradbury was concerned about have actually come to be. It’s been fascinating to examine how prescient Bradbury was in writing this novel. We have also been able to talk about media influence and the pros and cons of censorship, as well as the importance of critical thinking.
High School has continued it’s reading of “The Great Gatsby.” The reading, coupled with the in depth analytical questions they’ve been working on, have led to a deeper understanding of the text. Even students who have read it before are finding new and interesting things to discuss and grasping universal themes that they may have missed or forgotten. This has hopefully shown the benefit of re-reading novels in order to grasp their full scope. For the students who haven’t previously read the novel, they are negotiating the vocabulary and writing style very well!
