a glimmer of hope

Well after much frustration and longing to engage our girls in some meaningful discussion, I think we enjoyed some mild success and satisfaction. We started out today discussing with the girls our true purpose and the expectations we have for book club and what we are hoping to see from them as learners. We lectured as they munched away on their cuties (our signature book club snack :) and even showed them blooms taxonomy to challenge them to use higher order thinking skills.

Before any type of whole group activity as we have done in the past, we had the girls go straight to their book groups. Kim and I had pre-selected passages to read aloud and images to look at that pertained to their books. We decided to try reading aloud which is something we hadn't done before. I personally worked with the group "The Misfits", a group of seven girls, and read the section of the book titled "Popularity versus Principles". This is a pivotal section in the book where the group decides to run for student body president and debate whether they even have a chance at competing against "popularity"

The kids took turns reading while we paused to discuss vocabulary and key points. Our conversation ensued over popularity versus principles. Who did they think would win an election? Why do those people tend to win votes? Well you know it was definitely teacher guided with so many shy girls and

But we have a long ways to go...

Things the kids said-popularity will win

Why-because thats just the way it is--this is something to go off from