Engaging Book Club: Among the Hidden - Book 1 of The Shadow Children

For all of his young life Luke has had to stay hidden from those outside, living as a virtual prisoner on his family’s farm.  A Shadow Child.  Now, for reasons beyond his control, it appears as if he will never even be able to leave his house again.  But what happens when Luke sees something outside his attic window.  Something he can’t ignore and will risk everything to find answers to.

This class will meet once a week for three weeks to discuss the novel Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix and various reading strategies that readers use to increase their understanding of a text.  Each student will be expected to have access to a copy of the book in order to complete assigned readings in advance of and effectively participate in their next class.  

A general outline of what will be covered in each class is as follows:

Week 1:
-	Students will be expected to have read chapters 1-10 in advance of the first class.
-       Introductions and class expectations defined
-	General review of reading strategies we will be using in this course.
-       Discussion of events and vocabulary words in the first chapters, including information about the context and setting of the novel
-	Chapters 11-20 assigned to be read for next class

Week 2:
-	Students share their thoughts and discuss what happened in chapters 11-20
-	Discussion and examples of how reading strategies were applied 
-       Vocabulary words from these chapters reviewed
-	Chapters 21-30 assigned to be read for next class

Week 3:
-	Students share their thoughts and discuss what happened in the concluding chapters of the book
-	Discussion and examples of how reading strategies were applied 
-       Vocabulary words from these chapters reviewed
-	Overall opinions of the book and its conclusion will be examined
-	As a concluding activity students may compose their own review of the novel with their own unique rating system and recommendations