Can empathy change your life?

Welcome to the second book study in our Great Stories Book Club series! This series has been made possible by a grant from the American Library Association and is being taught in partnership with the Buena Vista Public Library. The theme of this book club series is empathy: what is it, and why is it important? 

The second book in the series is Sherman Alexie's novel Flight, about a Native American boy who is disenchanted with society and decides to go on a shooting rampage - and at that moment, is transported back through time to a variety of moments of interracial violence in our country's history. 

Because this is a fast read, we're going to complete it in one week! Our days will be spent in discussion and READING. You'll earn bonus points for this module: on top of the regular points you can earn for the module, you will earn reading points according to our Reading and Writing guidelines.

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essential questions

• Why is it important to engage with a local library?
• How can we add depth to discussions?

goals

• Students will understand that local libraries are an incredible wealth of resources - from access to free books, to the use of the internet, to a staff ready to help with any question, to comfortable chairs for reading in peace.
• Students will understand that discussions can be meaningful and deep when participants listen to each other, respond instead of reacting, and draw from specific experiences and textual evidence.

activities

INTRODUCE

• Participate in injustice activity
  • On a 3x5" card, write an experience you've had or seen someone else experience where you feel an injustice happened
  • Discuss these experiences: would you be able to forgive the person who perpetrated the injustice? 
• Review syllabus and expectations for the week

EXPOSE

• Participate in discussion: what is empathy? does it matter? can it influence us?
• Read Flight
  • Keep track of meaningful quotes (write out, label with post-it notes, highlight, etc.)
  • If you are an auditory learner, feel free to listen to the audiobook while you read - but please read along, too!
• Participate in orientation to Buena Vista Public Library if you missed the first one
  • Sign up for a library card

PRACTICE

• Discuss reading with specific topics:
  • Zits and Justice character analyses
  • Perspective: historical events
  • Instances of empathy (or lack thereof)

CREATE

• Complete reading journals in discussion format
  • Informative: compile a group summary of what has been read so far
  • Persuasive: Choose one of the persuasive questions and find a quote to back up your response
  • Narrative: Debrief reading experience

REFLECT

• Conference with Christine one-on-one about the week and your impressions of the book
• Complete module survey

c-tachs

Reading

• Cite strong textual evidence to support analysis of explicit and implicit meaning of text
• Analyze author’s stylistic choices regarding structure and development of the elements of a story, particularly theme

Speaking and Listening 

• Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions
• Present information, findings and supporting evidence, conveying a clear and distinct perspective
  

resources

Flight syllabus
Flight audiobook