Common Reader

STAR Summary

The common reader unit was fun because we got to read the graphic novel and watch the movie in this unit. The main thing we did was form into groups, and we would read the book on our own time and complete one of the five roles, turning it in before class and discussing our role in the group unless we had the journalist role. The five roles were the journalist, who would write down the discussion of the group members; the discussion leader, who started the group conversation; the creative connecter, who connected elements of the book to other topics or situations; the passage master, who brought up specific quotes to further explain the meaning, and the devil's advocate had to give an oppositional opinion to stir the pot. The purpose of doing the group discussions was to provide a better understanding of the graphic novel, and the discussions granted us the ability to understand the book from an outside perspective because everyone had different things they noticed, believed, or inferred. I liked this unit because it gave the class a break from writing so much, and it showed us the effectiveness of group reading discussions. In this unit, I learned about the story of 1984, and I learned how to read in-depth to understand the meaning of stories better.