Wonder by R. J. Palacio

I first read Wonder back in April. Then I read it aloud to my fifth graders in May. And then I started reading it to my new batch of fifth graders in August. They are loving it! And today...we met magic with that book.

So, I don't do book reports. I don't believe in them. I've read enough research and other books on reading to support my decision. However, my team does them as do millions of teachers in America, so I said that I might make them optional this year. This book report format/worksheet showed up in my box and then became lost in a stack of math and reading copies. I found it day before yesterday and thought, "What shall I do with this?"

During Literacy time, the Power Hour, I decided to bring up the whole topic of Book Reports with my darlings. Wish I would have taped that conversation. I heard some pretty bold, straight-up confessions about how these students don't really ever read the book, they don't enjoy reading the book, they don't like being forced reading from a certain genre, they watch the movie instead, they do the same book they did the year before, their mom does all their book reports, etc. I also heard some positive comments from children who enjoy reading. They especially love the art projects attached to book reports. Nobody likes the writing. It's the writing they really hate.

I enjoyed the candor and straightened them out on a couple of things. For example, I preached, "There are many things we still do even if we don't enjoy doing them because they are GOOD FOR US!" I also told them they are expected to read and I have sneaky ways of getting them to do it. I also have sneaky ways of teaching the stuff they are supposed to be learning when they have their mom do their book reports. So let me get to my point.

We decided to do a class book report. Yep, all of us are working on one book report together. And naturally, we're doing it on the book I'm reading aloud. And fortunately, it happens to be a Realistic Fiction piece which was required this month. In Wonder, the main character is August who is a fifth grader who was born with a craniofacial abnormality. This afternoon, I decided to model writing by tackling one of the book report requirements. We had our choice of describing the character's physical appearance OR...or describing the character's personality. We talked about which one we would choose and why.

My kids had a great discussion about this! In the end, they decided we had better go for personality because no one should judge a book by its cover. They decided Auggie had been scrutinized his entire life because of his deformity and we didn't need to scrutinize any further. It wouldn't be fair to him. And so we began to write. We cranked out a five sentence paragraph and revised a little as we went along. We searched for just the right words and we even quoted one of the characters in the book. It was a beautiful teaching moment.

But then...even more magic happened. One of my students asked about the book report requirement to draw a picture of the character. "How are we going to do that?" The room got really quiet. Long pause. Then someone else asked, "What if we drew him and made him look worse than he really does? That wouldn't be nice." Another stated, "We already said we were going to focus on his personality and not his physical features." My students and I were at a little crossroads. More silence. And then someone said, "It wouldn't be fair. I don't think any of us should draw him at all. He's already been through so much." Guys. Guys, I was getting emotional! Again, I was thinking, "Where is that video camera?" This discussion was so incredible! So then we decided that in order to honor Auggie and all of the challenges he has alredy overcome in life, we would leave him undrawn. But then...a boy had an idea! He said, "Maybe we could draw him with his astronaut helmet on!" And another said, "Or like the Bleeding Scream (Halloween costume)!" The class decided this would be acceptable.

But no one will draw his real face. That's not how we treat a dear friend.