This year, our most powerful experience was through the reading of Sharon Draper's Out of My Mind. The story is about a child with severe disabilities who is off-the-charts brilliant but whose ability to communicate is so limited that she feels locked inside the prison of her body, unable to connect with other children at school, her teachers, even her family. Every child feels like this from time to time. Students involved in the club had many aha moments about their own personal limitations. They also developed a deep compassion for other children, and desired to reach out and experience more, while helping others.
The culminating application exercise for our group was to attend and volunteer at a Buddy League game. Buddy League is a local organization that provides opportunities for children with disabilities to participate in the joy of playing and friendly competition of sports.
I will be posting links to my lesson plans and forms I used for initiating Book Club in my school. I would like to make this a school-wide activity that students could choose to join, complete with membership privileges, t-shirts, etc. I find that many elementary school children are lacking opportunities to be a part of something and simply having this "club" to be a member of is in itself a healing force. You can find pictures and more information about this year's book club here.
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