This page was exported from Bancroft this Week [ https://www.bancroftthisweek.com ] Export date:Mon Jul 22 21:28:41 2024 / +0000 GMT ___________________________________________________ Title: Competitive reading at NHHS --------------------------------------------------- Bryan Dingle, left, and Zach Smith, right, lend support as Mason Douglas argues on behalf of his group's book Blood Red Road. TONY PEARSON Special to This Week By Tony Pearson Heather Taylor, English teacher at North Hastings High School, believes that reading should be a participation sport. Accordingly, she challenged her 11C English class to form teams and battle it out to determine who read the best book. Taylor, like most English teachers, was looking for a way to get more student involvement in literature – to achieve their buy-in to reading. She struck on the idea of a competition modelled on the popular CRC radio series Canada Reads. In the case of Taylor Reads, groups of students took turns outlining the book's plot and characters, identifying its literary devices, describing its setting and atmosphere, and setting out its theme. Thus, the traditional (and somewhat boring) elements of novel study were transformed, as each group tried to make their case that their book was exciting and engaging. Most of the novels were in what is called the “post-apocalyptic” or “dystopian” category of the science fiction/fantasy genre – where the characters live in a world which is built following a disaster. This world is often based on a Darwinian struggle for survival. The best-selling and box-office smashing Hunger Games is an example of this type of literature, and it was one of the books discussed during Taylor Reads. In the end, the panel – which included principal Ken Dostaler – decided that the best presentation was from the group presenting Canadian Ken Oppel's award-winning novel Airborn, a kind of “steam-punk” adventure involving airships, pirates, and sky-creatures. Members of the winning team were Riley Graf, Jaggar McCormack, Josh Nichols, and Hunter Nicholson. --------------------------------------------------- Images: --------------------------------------------------- Excerpt: Heather Taylor, English teacher at North Hastings High School, believes that reading should be a participation sport. Accordingly, she challenged her 11C English class to form teams and battle it out to determine who read the best book. --------------------------------------------------- Post date: 2016-05-05 01:04:19 Post date GMT: 2016-05-05 05:04:19 Post modified date: 2016-05-04 10:07:09 Post modified date GMT: 2016-05-04 14:07:09 ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Export of Post and Page as text file has been powered by [ Universal Post Manager ] plugin from www.gconverters.com