What We're Studying
Whole-Class Novel: Bystander by James Preller
Literature Circles
This marking period, we are switching things up and working in Literature Circles, or book groups.
As they discuss the assigned chapter readings with their peers, students will be responsible for one of six roles: Discussion Director: The Discussion Director is responsible for facilitating the conversation and keeping the group on task. Additionally, he/she will come up with 5 interesting talking points based on the reading to share with the group. Literary Luminary: The Literary Luminary's job is to find 3 passages that are interesting in some way. The passages may be funny, memorable, important, confusing, or otherwise interesting in some way. Illustrator: The illustrator's job is to capture a key scene from the reading and share it with the group. He/she must explain why they felt the scene was significant. Vocabulary Enricher: The Vocabulary Enricher is responsible for sharing with the group unfamiliar or unusual words or words that are used in an interesting way. He/she may comment on the author's choice of words. Connector: Using any three passages, the Connector makes three connections: text-to-self, in which he/she compares the text to something in his/her own life, text-to-text, in which he/she compares the text to another book, a movie, or TV show, and text-to-world in which he/she compares the text to something in our society. Summarizer: The Summarizer's job is to summarize the assigned reading, commenting on the characters, setting, plot, etc. Students will rotate through these roles so that everyone has an opportunity to reflect on the assigned reading in a different way and to enrich everyone's understanding of the novel. |
Our new whole-class novel, Bystander, by James Preller examines the issue of bullying from the perspective of Eric, a newcomer who witnesses relentless attacks against a student at his new school. Eric must decide whether he should do the right thing and risk becoming the bully's next victim, or remain a passive but complicit participant.
The novel complements one of our third marking literary themes: taking a stand. Preller has created a realistic middle school character with an authentic voice, and many students will be able to relate to the situations in which Eric finds himself. Informational/Explanatory Texts and Writing This marking period we will also look at non-fiction texts and working with evidence and evidence-based claims, and informational/explanatory writing. Students have done related non-fiction reading on the subject of bullying and have used information from their reading as sources for explanatory writing assignments. Our second 8th grade Common Assessment focuses on these skills. |