Maniac Magee

We are well into our exploration of the novel Maniac Magee, using a modified Literature Circle system. Rather than have the students exclusively lead their own reading groups, they work in groups while under the teacher's direct supervision. The four jobs the students use to inform their responses to their reading are Discussion Director, Summarizer, Illustrator, and Travel Tracer.
     In Cultural Studies the class is transitioning from our focus on individual identity to thinking about groups and communities. The class read the following quotation from Susan Goldsmith's A City Year,

"Communities are not built of friends, or of groups with similar styles and tastes, or even of people who like and understand each other. They are built of people who feel they are part of something that is bigger than themselves: a shared goal or enterprise, like righting a wrong, or building a road, or raising children, or living honorably, or worshiping a god. To build community requires only the ability to see value in others, to look at them and see a potential partner in one’s enterprise."

 Using this quotation as a launching point the students discussed whether they agreed or disagreed with Goldsmith.

Homework: Literature; due Wednesday, November 3rd. Read Part ll of Maniac Magee. Do your Lit Circle Job, and come prepared to discuss the novel.