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Carl Sagan wrote, "What an astonishing thing a book is. It's a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you're inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs." In the spirit of Carl Sagan, this project is designed to help students love reading again by connecting them with people from other cultures. My students are more likely to devour a book if it's contemporary and relevant to them; by contrast, the majority of the books available at our school were purchased in the 1970s. I've had students find their parents' names in their own books--seriously. I need some fresh pages in my classroom. I'm asking for a set of books to use in literature circles for my 10th grade classroom in order to cultivate a love of reading, expose students to different cultures, and build reading and discussion skills, especially for nonfiction. Why memoirs? I want students to identify with someone who may not look like them, come from the same area, or have the same adventures. Also, I've found that students have very little exposure to nonfiction, despite the fact that they'll primarily read it outside of high school. Why literature circles? Students are more likely to read if they can choose their books. Period. I don't want them to miss out on the chance to discuss and grapple with a book alongside the class, though. Lit circles strike a nice balance between solo reading and more structured learning and help with reading and writing.
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