The upcoming class will be in your hands entirely.

Above, you will find SIX extracts from SIX interesting middle-grade/YA novels.

Your tasks are:

1. Read ALL six of them and think about the teenage and other issues they contain. Think about these within the context of the extract but you may also think about how would you deal with such a teenager both in life and classroom. To me, the texts are compelling but each in its own, specific way. 

2. Sign up for ONE text, the discussion of which you will lead in a learning centre. Ideally, there should be an equal number of leaders for each text. For your study group, see the relevant Sign-up lists below.  If you cannot attend your group but would like to go to another, sign up for it or let me know. If you run out of vacancies, also let me know.

3. Prepare 3-4 questions that would prompt analysing and discussing the text. You may but don't need to look up some information about the book and the author but I suggest doing it AFTER you have read the text and formed some ideas yourself. I do recommend scaffolding your questions, e .g. starting from LOTS and proceeding to HOTS.

4. In class you will be chairing the discussion about this particular extract. This does NOT mean that you need to know all the answers or prepare a lecture or be the only one speaking. On the contrary, if you are the most silent person in the group, you and your group are doing a wonderful job.  The discussing should take 10-15 minutes so plan you time management as well.

What it DOES mean is to ASK questions, invite and encourage people to speak, channel and prompt the discussion. 

It may be hard - some people might be reluctant and you will need to monitor the group closely to determine what the problem is. It may be that the question is hard to answer, or the student is shy, or they haven't read what they were supposed to. Situations like these are always challenging and sometimes discouraging but happen all the time. 

Another problem that occurs frequently is that people might try to steer the discussion away from the text or even topic. This could be good sometimes and is always great as a follow-up. Often though, it is a deliberate attempt to avoid the task and often leads to chit-chat where no real thinking is involved. You want to make sure you curb such attempts.

Types of questions you can ask:

Knowledge questions (related to the context, language (e.g. vocabulary, etc.)

Comprehension questions (e.g. orientation in the text)

Analytical questions (e.g. identifying important themes)

Attitude questions (personal attitudes, feelings, opinions)

To sum up, your task is to read all the texts and be ready to chair a discussion in a learning centre on one of them. If anything is unclear, please keep me posted.  

5. For your questions and also for your notes before and during the class, please use Worksheet 7. 

Look back into last week to enter your limerick into the vault.