To end the month of February, the students are beginning to study dystopian stories. These stories are very popular in young adult fiction right now because they are intriguing. More specifically, these stories take place in societies that are characterized by the suffering of their people; at the same time, the stories have connections to our society now because they take a problem that our society faces and look at it in its extreme.
The first story that all students are reading is "The Lottery." This classic story has intense themes that spur the students on to deep thinking about their own traditions. After this story, the students will be reading young adult novels in small groups. The groups will meet every few days to discuss their reading and share small reading-related projects. During this time, the students will not complete reading logs, but will follow along with a reading calendar. Our unit on dystopia will last into the last weeks in March.