Originally published on 2/11/22
Alvin Junior High Humanities teacher, Sarah Barron, chose a new novel for her class book club to honor Black History Month. “Come Juneteenth” aligned perfectly with their current TEKS discussing Civil War while connecting it to Depth and Complexity assignments. These assignments ask students to take responsibility for various roles while reading which helps build connections and retain material. At their first meeting, students are split into groups and assigned roles. An example of a role is “Profiler” who is responsible for keeping track of the character’s thoughts, feelings, strengths, weaknesses, etc. Throughout the story, students within their groups will switch roles so everyone has a chance to participate in every role.
“Through these book clubs, students are interacting with the Depth and Complexity icons in a fun and meaningful way,” Barron shared. “The discussions are 100% student-led leaving me to observe the interactions and only step in if completely necessary.” The discussions are very complex and dig deeply into ethics, multiple perspectives, trends, changes in character traits/decisions, the historical time period itself, plot, personal connection, and much more. The design of the book club has allowed students to open up and reflect on their readings while making connections through the Depth and Complexity assignments. Through these groups, students discover so many layers of character development, plot complexities and a deeper knowledge of how historical literature relates to our current society.