The Learning Innovation Hub
The Learning Innovation Hub is here to help teachers and their students find creative ways to integrate technology and use digital tools to connect with the novels. Digital opportunities to learn include producing blogs, podcasts, and videos.
A Novel Idea - The Study Guide
This study guide is focused on the idea of reading novels for resilience - the ability to adapt well in the face of hard times. Resilience, the ability to bounce back from ordeals, can be learned by immersing ourselves in the lives of outstanding literary characters and understanding the wisdom of the ways they overcame adversity.
"There is no better teacher than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time." - Malcolm X
Many teens face difficult issues today. The relevance of literacy educators promoting educational resilience is underscored by the Children’s Defense Fund (2014) report, The State of America’s Children. The statistics for all children are startling. (p.11): Each day in America for all children, 737 babies are born into poverty, 7 children or teens are killed by guns, 303 arrested for drug crimes, 404 are corporally punished, 1,055 high school students drop out, and 5,233 public school students are suspended. Recent research from the author (Stanley, 2015) identified five protective factors for resilience: (1) social competence, (2) problem-solving skills, (3) autonomy, (4) sense of purpose, and (5) use of storytelling. The students will learn important lessons about life from resilience theme linked books.
The standards place a big emphasis on the reading and analysis of multiple texts, including synthesizing information across texts. The study guide will help adolescents to read, discuss, and write about varied and challenging texts with confidence. The study guide will guide the teacher and students to analyze these texts through answering questions, discussions, taking brief quizzes, recording their observations, writing papers and completing multimedia projects. The ability to read and comprehend a range of complex texts is a foundational skill for students interested in succeeding in college. Also, the ability to communicate verbally in writing, and digitally (e.g. PowerPoints and multimedia) - the synthesis of information through effective reading is identified by employers as a key transferable skill for most careers.