Before Shared Inquiry Discussion
In order to participate successfully in Shared Inquiry Discussion, students need to develop a sufficient familiarity with and understanding of the story. A variety of activities can help students get to know and understand the story.
The guiding purpose of Junior Great Books is to help students think for themselves and develop their own interpretations. So only those activities that help students develop the necessary familiarity and understanding in a way that does not tell them or explain the meaning of the story to them will be appropriate.
The selections in Junior Great Books address important and powerful issues and ideas about life and human existence. Often these are exactly the areas where we want to make sure students "get it right." The compelling messages of these stories can be exactly the things we want to communicate to our students.
The leader's role before, and during, Shared Inquiry Discussion is to help students explore and discover what the story means to them. If we are to introduce students to a story that has much to say, then we must allow it to speak, rather than speaking for it.
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