Junior Great Books
mburns@lcisd.net
“Junior Great Books is a revolutionary language arts program that helps students increase their reading comprehension, develop critical-thinking skills, and improve their writing.” – a quote from The Great Books Foundation’s catalog.
Seven of the benefits Ms. McDaniel and I feel the students receive include:
1. The students develop an appreciation for outstanding literature because the stories are so exciting.
2. The stories hopefully encourage students to LOVE reading.
3. The stories increase the students’ vocabulary.
4. The stories stimulate the students’ ability to think deeply in order to answer the Shared Inquiry questions.
5. The students are encouraged to share out loud their ideas and opinions with their classmates giving them confidence that their ideas are valuable.
6. The stories expose the students to the outstanding works of world famous writers such as Beatrix Potter, Hans Christian Andersen, Carl Sandburg, Langston Hughes, Rudyard Kipling, and Oscar Wilde among others.
7. The stories stimulate the understanding and diversity of world cultures.
I read to each of the Kindergarten classes every other week and first through fifth grade once a week for thirty minutes. The following week in the second through fifth grades, the students hear a brief biography about the story's author. Then we discuss the story for twenty-five minutes using the Shared Inquiry questions and do a five minute vocabulary drill.
The Great Books Foundation explains Shared Inquiry as "a method of learning based on the idea that many minds working together can achieve more insight into a rich work of literature than could any individual working alone... Freed from the need to produce 'right' answers, (the students) quickly discover how collaboration stimulates individual thinking and how the enjoyment of literature is enriched when ideas are explored within a community of readers...Students also gain experience in calling up (textural) evidence to support their opinions."
Examples of Shared Inquiry questions from Jack and the Beanstalk are:
Why does jack think it is a ggod bargain to trade the cow for five magical beans? Why isn't Jack content after he has the hen that lays the golden eggs? Why does Jack decide to climb the beanstalk the third time?
Stories for the First Six Weeks (Aug. 25 – Oct. 3)
In Kindergarten:
Axle Annie by Robin Pulver, Dr. De Soto by William Steig, Benny by Bob Graham, and Dr. White by Jane Goodall
In First Grade:
The Shoemaker and the Elves by the Brothers Grimm, The Frog Went A-Traveling (a Russian folktale), The Tale of Two Bad Mice by Beatrix Potter, Bouki Cuts Wood (a Haitian folktale), Bouki Dances the Kokioko by Baba Wague Diakite, Lion at School by Philippa Pearce, The Happy Lion’s Treasure, Coyote Rides the Sun (a Native American folktale), and Iktomi and the Coyote by Paul Goble.
In the Second Grade:
The Happy Lion by Louise Fatio, The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin by Beatrix Potter, and How the Camel Got His Hump, by Rudyard Kipling.
In the Third Grade:
The Master Cat by Charles Perrault, The Fisherman and His Wife by the Brothers Grimm, and The Little Daughter of the Snow (a Russian Folktale).
In the Fourth Grade:
Thank You, M’am by Langston Hughes, The Water Horse of Barra (a Scottish folktale), and The Story of Wang Li (a Chinese folktale).
In the Fifth Grade:
Charles by Shirley Jackson, Ghost Cat by Donna Hill, and Turquoise Horse by Gerald Hausman.
Stories for the Second Six Weeks (Oct. 6 – Nov. 7)
In Kindergarten:
Mailing May by Michael O. Tunnell, Dancing in the Wings by Debbie Allen, Salt in His Shoes - Michael Jordan in Pursuit of a Dream by Deloris Jordan, Good-bye, Charles Lindbergh by Louise Borden.
In First Grade:
The Frog Prince by the Brothers Grimm, Guinea Fowl and Rabbit Get Justice (an African folktale), Feraj and the Magic Lute (an Arabian folktale), The Tale of Johnny Town Mouse by Beatrix Potter, and Buya Marries the Tortoise (an African folktale).
In Second Grade:
Kanga and Baby Roo Come to the Forest and Piglet Has a Bath by A. A. Milne, Arap Sang and the Cranes (a African folktale), and Blue Moose by Daniel Manus Pinkwater
In Third Grade:
The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christian Andersen, The Monster Who Grew Small by Joan Grant, and The Little Humpbacked Horse (a Russian folktale)
In Fourth Grade:
The Elephant’s Child by Rudyard Kipling, and Vasilissa the Beautiful (a Russian folktale)
In Fifth Grade:
Lenny’s Red-Letter Day by Bernard Ashley, and The Prince and the Goose Girl by Elinor Mordaunt
Stories for the Third Six Weeks (Nov. 10 - Dec. 19)
In Kindergarten: Last Night at the Zoo by Michael Garland, Saturday Night at
In First Grade:
In Second grade:
Anancy and Dog and Puss and Friendship (a West Indian folktale), Jack and the Beanstalk (an English folktale), and The Magic Listening Cap (a Japanese folktale).
In third grade:
The Little Humpbacked Horse (a Russian folktale), Ooka and the Honest
Thief (a Japanese folktale), and Jean Labadie’s Big Black Dog (a
French-Canadian Folktale).
In Fourth Grade:
Cedric by Tove Jansson, Fresh by Philippa Pearce, and The Enchanted
Sticks by Steven J. Myers.
In Fifth Grade:
Tramp by Malcolm Carrick, Alberic the Wise by Norton Juster, and
Podhu and Aruwa (an African folktale).
In Kindergarten:
Goose Girl by the Brothers Grimm, Little Brother, Little Sister by the Brothers Grimm, Mr. Lincoln’s Way by Patricia Polacco, The Amazing Bone by William Steig, and Two Days in May by Harriet Beck Taylor.
In First Grade:
The Black Hen’s Egg (a French Folktale), The Mouse and the Wizard (a Hindu fable), Rumpelstiltskin by the Brothers Grimm, Eeyore has a Birthday and Gets Two Presents by A. A. Milne, The King of the Frogs (an African folktale), The Wide-Mouthed Frog by Schneider, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by the Brothers Grimm.
In Second Grade:
Nail Soup (a Swedish folktale), Stone Soup by
In Third Grade:
Caporushes (an English folktale), It’s all the Fault of Adam (a Nigerian folktale), and Two Wise Children by Robert Graves.
In Fourth Grade:
Wisdom’s Wages and Folly’s Pay by Howard Pyle, Mr. Singer’s Nicknames by James Kruss, and Beauty and the Beast by Madame de Villeneuve.
In Fifth Grade:
The Invisible Child by Tove Jansson, A Game of Catch by Richard Wilbur, and The Tale of the Three Storytellers by James Kruss.
Stories for the Fifth Six Weeks (Feb. 23 – April 9)
In Kindergarten
Forty Fortunes byAaron Shepard, The Boy of the Three-Year Nap by Dianne Snyder, Soccer Mom by Barney Saltzberg, Mrs. Morgan’s Lawn by Barney Saltzberg
In First Grade
Chestnut Pudding (an Iroquois folktale), The Pied Piper (an English folktale), The Mermaid who Lost her Comb (a Scottish folktale), Hansel and Gretel by the Brothers Grimm, Mother of the Waters (a Haitian folktale), Zlateh the Goat by Issac Bashevis Singer
In Second Grade
The Other Side of the Hill by Elizabeth Coatsworth, The Emperor’s New Clothes by Hans Christian Andersen, How the Elephant Became by Ted Hughes
In Third Grade
The Black Heart of Indri by Dorothy Hodge, The Green Man by Gail E. Haley, The Mousewife by Rumer Godden
In Fourth Grade
Prot and Krot (A Polish folktale), Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (from The Arabian Nights)
In Fifth Grade
Spit Nolan by Bill Naughton, The Queen’s Care by Elizabeth Jamison Hodges, Lucky Boy by Philippa Pearce
Stories for the Sixth Six Weeks (April 13 – May 29)
In Kindergarten
Jane vs the Tooth Fairy by Betsy Jay, No Tooth, No Quarter by Jon Buller, Goldilocks Returns by Lisa Campbell Ernst, Burnt Toast on
In First Grade
The Hand-Me-Down Horse by Marion Hess Pomeranc, The Village of Round and Square Houses by Ann Grifalconi, Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters by John Steptoe, The Empty Pot by Demi, The Greatest Treasure by Demi, Stay Away From the Junkyard by Tricia Tusa, The Raft by Jim La Marche, Three Names by Patricia MacLachlan
In Second Grade
Ananci’s Fishing Expedition (a West African folktale), The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams, The Terrible Leak (a Japanese folktale), The Singing Tortoise (a West African folktale)
In Third Grade
The Fire on the Mountain (an Ethiopian folktale), The Snowman by Hans Christian Andersen, The Man Whose Trade was Tricks (a Georgian folktale)
In Fourth Grade
The Hemulen Who Loved Silence by Tove Jansson, The Devoted Friend by Oscar Wilde, The Dancing Princesses by Walter de la Mare
In Fifth Grade
The Secret of the Hattifatteners by Tove Jansson, The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde , Kaddo’s Wall (a West African Folktale)
