My (grade 8) students I are about halfway through our book club reading, The Lord of the Flies. So far, I’ve “given” 2 assignments. They were neither pre-planned nor forced. Any student, at any time, could say, “I’d rather not do that assignment.” But no one did say this.
When I first began my career, I might have looked at my current situation with deep admiration, with wonder of how it’s done, with curiosity and, perhaps a little skepticism. After all, students don’t want to work… right?
Oh, but of course they do! They just don’t want to be forced to do it!
So, as I was saying, my students are now working on their second official assignment of the book. The first, after reading the first two chapters, was to complete a visual representation of the island that was so vividly described in the book. In our first discussion, the physical details of the island were a common talking point. The group seemed genuinely interested in having a clear mental map. As we discussed, it hit me that this would be a great opportunity for them to a) re-read to clarify their vision of what the book’s setting is, b) practice visualization while reading, c) be creative, and d) compare and discuss each person’s understanding of the island (this would be the next class, when they were done).
The second assignment was different for each student. It started when one student asked if this might be a good time in the book to complete some sort of summary or consolidation of understanding. I responded with something along the lines of, “I hadn’t been planning on it, but I think that would be really helpful. Why don’t we come back to this after our discussion of the book is over?”
So, just before we wrapped up our day’s book club discussion, I suggested they each complete some small task to share something about the book and their understanding or perspective. I suggested a few options that might be of interest to them, and each student decided on a task and a form to complete it. There are 5 students in this book club, and we have 5 different tasks being completed, including writing about what it would be like to have a specific character in our class, a straight summary of the book so far, and predictions for what will come.
I encouraged them to be creative and utilize some of the resources in the art room rather than simply writing but, as most are very near to entering traditionally academic high schools, I think they all feel the need to improve their writing. While I wish the high schools valued balanced learning the way we do, I appreciate that the students are making intentional decisions to practice and improve based on their anticipated needs.
My co-guides and I were very intentional about our main goal being to keep the students’ love of reading alive, rather than meeting specific learning outcomes. This can be a debatable issue — Shouldn’t each lesson target a specific learning outcome? — but we’re confident that our students are learning more, and love reading more, than if we used a more popular or traditional approach. Stay tuned for another post on how we know our students are learning and growing, even though because our system is very free-flowing and gives lots of choice.
Photo by Alexis Brown on Unsplash
Modern Chalkboard 