Starfish 2

This book, Starfish, can be used in a library for a monthly book club. It is appropriate for grades 5 through 8 and has a Lexile level of HL630. Students can participate in the book club and then have philosophical discussions in small groups. The topic of discussion could be whether their school is doing enough to prevent bullying and ideas for improvement. Some suggested strategies include using question stems related to Ellie's reaction, a writing assignment from a different perspective, or doodle notes while reading aloud. When it comes to library programming for Starfish, this book could be used in the library for a monthly book club. Students would have the opportunity to participate in book club followed by small group philosophical chair discussions. The topic of discussion for Starfish could be whether or not they feel their school is doing enough to prevent bullying and what is helping the issue or ideas for improvement. The Lexile level for this book is HL630 and is appropriate for grades 5 through 8. Some scaffolding strategies for Starfish might be question stems like what if related to Ellie's reaction to people or a raft writing assignment that guides students toward writing from a different perspective in the novel and writing to a different audience with a different style of writing. Or you could just have students do doodle notes when you're reading part of the book aloud to them. It allows them to create images and pull out key words or concepts that they hear as you're reading.