Little Women - A Book Club

** PLEASE check all of the dates for the course meetings. There will be an extended break over the Christmas/New Years holidays to allow for family time. **

In this twice-weekly course, students will read, analyze, and celebrate the novel "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott. Over 16 meetings, your student's reading will be broken into manageable portions that will allow them to enjoy the story, but not be overwhelmed. I ask that students come to classes prepared, punctual, and ready to participate with their cameras on to show they're open for discussions. This course will be run in a whole-group format so that we can hear and respond to different ideas and opinions. 

Class Structure:
Each live meeting will focus on a set of pre-determined discussion questions provided by the instructor, and also suggested by the class members. In the early weeks of the course I will instruct students on how to prepare responses to discussion questions, using evidence to support. After the instruction period we will progress to a socratic-style discussion, where students will be expected to have their discussion answers prepared, and will be given the chance to ask questions and respond to their classmates relating to the discussion. Time in class will follow this rough outline:
-5 minute - Welcome and reading "check in"
-15 minutes - Open discussion of text details and story development 
-15 minutes - Direct instruction and modeling on pulling text examples to support responses (This section will blend into the open discussions as the weeks progress and students become more comfortable with text supports) 
-5 minute- wrap up and review homework

During classes we will explore some of the historical details from the text - the Civil War, women's fashion, healthcare, and the quality of education in the mid 1800s. If students are interested by these discussions, they will be encouraged to "dig a little deeper" into the topics on their own and share their findings with the group in the next class, either through an oral presentation or video media. 

Our first meeting will be a "Meet and Greet." Students will be given their reading assignment packet for note-taking, and have a chance to familiarize themselves with the instructor and classmates. The next 7 meetings will be focused on discussing the text with guided practice on note-taking and finding supporting evidence. Meetings thereafter will discuss the text through student-driven questions and responses
First Meeting: Meet and Greet
2: Chapters 1-3  Civil War life (Setting)
3: Chapters 4-6  Character Traits
4: Chapters 7-9  Fashion trends of 1800s
5: Chapters 10-12  Education for girls 
6: Chapters 13-15  Gender inequality of the time 
7: Chapters 16-18  Healthcare in 1800s
8: Chapters 19-21  Character growth/ development
9: Chapters 22-24  Student- led discussions
10: Chapters 25-27  Student- led discussions
11: Chapters 28-30  Student- led discussions
12: Chapters 31-33  Student- led discussions
13: Chapters 34-36  Student- led discussions
14: Chapters 37-39  Student- led discussions
15: Chapters 40-42  Student- led discussions
16: Final meeting - Opportunity to finish unshared personal projects, discuss similar books, final written responses

** No prior knowledge or reading is necessary to be successful in this course. I suggest that watching any of the film versions be postponed if possible until after the book is complete, in order to stick to the details of the original text. 

** Students are asked to respond to posted discussion questions and/or classmate comments on the OUTSCHOOL platform at least once a week.