Working Together—Junior Great Books® Series 4 & ThinkIt®
It’s easy to extend critical thinking to nonfiction materials when you combine Junior Great Books Series 4 with Junior Great Books ThinkIt.
Here’s how:
- Begin any of the Junior Great Books themes listed in the chart below by asking students the theme question and having them complete the theme introduction page of the Reader’s Journal.
- Once you complete the stories for a theme, return to the theme question and have students record any new answers in their Reader’s Journals.
- Inform students that you’re moving on to a ThinkIt unit that shares a similar theme and that you will revisit the theme question at the end of the unit.
- Have students complete the ThinkIt unit as directed.
- Ask students the theme question again and have them record any new answers they have in their Reader’s Journals.
- In addition, you can give your students the option of using the ThinkIt selection in the text comparison portion of the Series 4 story-to-story connection activities.
| Series 4 Theme | Theme Question | ThinkIt Correlation* |
| Trust | How do you earn someone's trust? | Junior Great Books orientation |
| Resourcefulness | What does it mean to be resourceful? | Wright Brothers, Inc. |
| Communication | What makes communication successful and what makes it unsuccessful? |
Disobeying the Dogs |
| Strength | What does it mean to be strong? | Doris and the End of the World Amelia Earhart Crosses the Atlantic |
| Integrity | What does it mean to have integrity? | The Stranger My Time on the Mount |
| Perspective | Why might someone try to see something from a different perspective? |
Bad Mistakes on Aconcagua Christmas Eve Crevasse |
*Please note that not all ThinkIt units correspond to a Junior Great Books Series 4 theme.
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Gloria Gonzalez
Can you send me sample materials for teacher review? I am the reading specialist and want to see the actual books used in the series. Thank you!
8730 Greenwood Ave., San Gabriel CA 91775
Sharon Crowley
Hi Gloria! Thanks for your interest in Junior Great Books. I’m going to send you an email you—look for a message that ends with @greatbooks.org (in case my message ends up in your spam folder). In case you already haven’t done so, be sure to download sample units of Junior Great Books Series 3-5 and ThinkIt on the K-12 Schools/Classroom Products page.
Lori Smith
Hi,
After digging through our school closets, I came across several different editions of Junior Great Books. Why these aren’t being used – I don’t know. The only problem that I am having, is that I cannot find any teacher materials that go with the books. Some of them are obviously older but I thought I might give it a try.
We have multiple copies of:
JGB Series 4 Volume 1 with a 1975 copyright date
Series 4 Volume 2 with a 1975 copyright date – are there other volumes in this series?
JGB Series 4 Second Semester with a 1992 copyright date
JGB Series 5 volume 2 with a 1975 copyright
Series 5 Volume 3 with a 1975 copyright – looks like I am missing volume 1
I am not worried about the old copyright dates – good literature is always good literature. I am interested however in teacher materials.
Thanks so much for your help,
Lori
Sharon Crowley
Hi Lori,
Wow! You found some Junior Great Books treasures. Watch your inbox for an email from @greatbooks.org–a staff member is going to reply to your question.
Karen Ames
Hi, I also have come across a 1975 copyrighted Junior Great Books reader from Series 4, Volume 1 and am looking for a leaders manual. As a girl in Chicago in the 1970’s, I was in on the newly started program. It was one of the most valuable educational experiences of my life. I would like to use the same materials for my son and others. The original stories were extraordinary and after reading a bit of one a minute ago I could remember it and the effect on me was the same. Profound.