Our PDPPPosse Resource Club just finished a successful meeting in which we were joined via BlueJeans by a group of middle school students, a teacher and a librarian from Gordon Head Middle School. On the technology side, Rich McCue once again came to our rescue and assisted us in setting up the technology from our end. The next step for me is to learn how to be independent in this process. I have enough confidence now that I am ready to take that on.
On the sharing of resources side of things, it was great to hear from middle schoolers! They took turns telling us about their favourite authors, favourite books and favourite genres. We heard that middle years students are interested in death, dystopia, fantasy and relationships. The series that came up several times were Harry Potter (talk about staying power!), Hunger Games, Divergent, Percy Jackson and Artemis Fowl. In addition, the authors that are capturing the attention of this group were John Green, Wendy Mass, Kit Pearson, James Patterson and even Steven King. They are interested in a variety of genres also from Manga to paranormal to relational.
Personally, I was impressed by the breadth of literature that the kids are reading and by their capacity to name the genre that moves them. Hearing the word, "dystopia" from a 12 year old was surprising to me. (I have a feeling that students will never cease to amaze). The students didn't use the word "empathy" but they are gravitating toward books and characters that they can relate to and in whose shoes they can metaphorically walk. Relatable characters are key in literature and these students can recognize that.
On our PDPPPosseRC blog, in which we are collecting great resources, I will list the authors, books and series that the kids mentioned and, as an extension of their learning and to enrich our blog, the students are planning to blog about their books too. I will provide that link soon.
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