Wonder: A Way to Teach Tolerance to 5th Grade Students
My students need a class set of the book Wonder by R.J. Palacio, a copy of the picture book We're All Wonders and a small group set of Auggie and Me for teaching lessons in tolerance.
Our students come from various different neighborhoods within our school district. They speak more than twenty-seven languages including English, Spanish, Bulgarian, Russian, Japanese, Tagalog, and Arabic.
My school serves students with a wide range of learning styles.
Our students are so diverse; with many students excelling in academics, athletics, and artistic endeavors as well as struggling with various disabilities, including intellectual disabilities, emotional disturbance, autism spectrum disorder and specific learning disabilities.
Regardless of where our students come from, they deserve to be successful. Monte Gardens is their home and our school community works closely together to see that all students have the chance, and the materials, to learn and grow. Our students are amazing! They dream and think and question, always wondering about the world around them. They are the scientists, inventors, authors, artists, mathematicians and visionaries of tomorrow. By fostering an environment of collaboration, community, and risk taking, we are building a future that will make us proud.
My Project
Last year I read aloud the book Wonder to my students. We engaged in amazing discussions around acceptance and tolerance, bullying and peer pressure. The challenge is that I was the only one holding a book in my hands. It is difficult to motivate students to truly engage with literature if they cannot hold it in their hands.
In 5th grade, my students are still considered children; by the time they get to middle school, suddenly they are young adults.
As young adults they are expected to make hard decisions and engage with peers in appropriate ways but often they have no idea what this should look like.
In my class this year, we will read the book Wonder as a class. Wonder tells the story of a boy, Auggie, who has a severe craniofacial deformity. He enters public school for the first time and must engage with his peers. Along the way, he meets a few true friends, a few true bullies, and many students who are simply bending to peer pressure. As a class we will have many discussions about the choices the characters make and what would have been "kinder". One of the themes of the book is "when given the choice between being right and being kind, choose kind." This is an important lesson for students to learn.
I am also requesting the picture book companion which I will read at the start of the year to open the discussion of Wonder and what its all about. Additionally I am requesting Auggie and Me which is the sequel. It is the story told from the perspective of three other characters. It is a great discussion piece to delve into the mind of a bully or a student who succumbed to peer pressure.
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