This year the students will be reading many different
genres such as fiction, non-fiction, adventure, mystery, biography, myth, folk
tales and more.
Students
will start the year with folk tales. The Rainbow-Colored Horse by
Pura Belpre from
Students will also be reading excepts from stories by famous authors such as: The Battle of the Ants from Walden
by Henry David Thoreau, I Was Frederick Douglass by Hildegarde
Hoyt Swift, The Secret of the Machines by Rudyard Kipling and so
much more.
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The class will read The Sign of the Beaver which will help us to
see how different cultures live together or don’t live together. After reading
the book, the class will watch the video version of The Sign of the
Beaver. There is no comparison. The class usually comes to the conclusion
that the video is very empty and void of any character development. Plus the
video does not even help develop an understanding of the title of the book, The
Sign of the Beaver. Great class discussions come out of these sessions.
Myth making can be so mysterious yet
not as mysterious as the stories of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. Students
will be exploring the famous myths and activities will follow concerning how
these myths play a part in our society today. The student’s will be reading
myths such as Prometheus; Pandora, The First Woman; The
Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis; Hermes; The Origins of
the Seasons; and more.
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Along with these reading projects
will be developed that will make the readings come to life.
Students are required to read at
least 20 minutes each night from a book of their choosing. This is above the
assigned reading from the class books.
The readings are developed with whole
class discussions and small group discussions for more in-depth analyses. Book
reports from all formats will be developed to grasp the understanding of why
people write books and why we love them so much.
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