Buck Mountain Central School (BMC) teachers came together and decided to read one book as an entire school this year. The book that was chosen was “One for the Murphys” by Lynda Mullaly Hunt. The book is about the journey of a girl as she navigates the meaning of family, foster care, and a sense of belonging.
As a school, we went on a journey together with the main character Carly. Each week every class read the book together and then did activities, questions, and vocabulary that complemented the chapters. Some activities that we did were, creating a graffiti wall with sentences that stood out to us as important messages and creating blackout poetry using excerpts from the novel. For our final project, students used the re-occurring sign from the novel “Be someone’s Hero” to brainstorm ways in which they could be a good role model to others. As well, students were able to predict what they thought would happen to Carley in the future. The entire school posted their responses on the main galleria bulletin board for all visitors and students to see.
The student response to the school novel was positive and exciting. Students were discussing the novel throughout different classes and even reached out to staff after school hours to talk about how the book ended. There was such a positive response throughout the school that we have decided to go on another One School, One Book journey again next year. We have been lucky to get the funding for this year’s book and for next year's book donated by Cenovus Energy. Thank you so much for making this literacy project a reality for our school!
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