2021学年的第一个学期临近结束，在学期末回首这一学期六年级阅读小组的活动，可以看到同学们对阅读的喜爱与热情，他们在阅读分享活动中积极参与，收获满满。
（一）组建班级图书角和年级公共图书架
开学伊始，阅读小组的招募海报张贴后，吸引了一批喜欢阅读的同学们。在最初的活动会议上，阅读小组的三位负责老师陈老师、赵老师、Mrs. Portillo分别介绍了本学期的活动计划，确定下了9月的主要任务是建立班级图书角和年级走廊的公共图书架。
经过同学们的共同努力，每个班级都建好了自己的图书角。装饰出来的这一个小小的角落，整齐地摆放着每月推荐阅读的书籍和同学们贡献的各种图书，吸引着同学们的目光。课间和午间休息时，年级走廊的公共图书架前也时不时有同学驻足。同学们可以独自拿一本书坐在沙发上沉浸于书的世界，也可以和好友一起共读，静静地享受一段美好的读书时光。
（二）中英双语主题阅读让同学们进入广阔的世界
本学期六年级读书活动的一大特色是主题阅读，中文、英文都设置了不同的阅读主题，根据当月的阅读主题推荐相关书籍供同学们阅读。
中文阅读部分，为配合9、10月份主题“青春的心灵”，主推阅读书籍是《蛤蟆先生去看心理医生》，此外书架上还摆放了《外婆的道歉信》、《妈妈及生命的意义》等书籍；11、12月是中文的科幻月活动，主推书籍是刘慈欣的《带上她的眼睛》，阿西莫夫的《我，机器人》、郝景芳的《北京折叠》，并鼓励学生去阅读各种科幻小说、科幻杂志；最后一个月结合“培养独立自主的学习者”和“负责任的世界公民”的教育理念，推荐了一些和学习认知有关及环保类书籍，例如《我们怎样学习》、《沙乡年鉴》等。
英文老师也推荐了不同主题的书籍。9月份Mrs. Portillo选择推荐了《Stand Up, Yumi Chung!》，这本书讲述的是一个韩裔美国女孩追寻梦想的故事。10月份Mrs. Portillo主持了第一次分享交流会，参加分享会的同学们讨论、分享了阅读《Stand Up, Yumi Chung!》的感受，同时投票选择11月的阅读书籍。为了庆祝万圣节，同学们选择了《Escape From Witch City》。此后12月的圣诞节，J.K.罗琳的新书《The Christmas Pig》被同学们选中，这是一个关于丢失了心爱玩具的男孩寻找自己玩具的故事。在本学期最后一次的分享会上，同学们选择了和亚洲神话主题相关的《The Dragon Pearl》，同时为了配合2月份Black History Month主题，《From the Desk of Zoe Washington》成为了主推阅读书籍。希望同学们能利用寒假时间阅读这两本书，等下学期开学后一起来参加阅读交流活动。
这些不同主题的阅读为同学们打开了更多的窗户，让同学们浸润在双语阅读中，关注自我的内心世界，展开想象的翅膀探索未来，领略不同的文化。
（三）心理老师主持的阅读分享会
除了推荐阅读书籍，六年级还邀请了相关领域的老师来和同学们分享交流书中的内容，为孩子们解读阅读中的疑惑，如科幻月邀请科幻作家进行了“科幻与想象力”的分享会，心理老师孙老师主持的阅读分享会更是广受同学们的热捧，因其反响极好，不断增加次数，本学期前后共进行了五次分享会，仿佛是演唱会后不断“安可”的曲目。
孙老师带着《蛤蟆先生去看心理医生》这本书进行了完全以学生为中心的分享会。不少前来参加分享会的同学刚开始有点拘束，甚至是抱着一种完成任务的态度前来，但孙老师借用书中的“情绪温度计”让同学们说说自己“今天感觉怎么样”，引导同学们使用书中提到的三种心理状态分析自己和周围人的行为。随着交流的深入进行，从对自己的评价，对周围同学、朋友、父母的看法，到和同学、朋友、父母等的关系，同学们纷纷打开心门畅所欲言，说出自己内心真实的想法。
尤其是在1月7日进行的最后一次分享会上，孙老师让同学们谈自己对寒假的期待，出乎意料的是有些同学并不期待，因为他们往年的寒假或者暑假都是被安排了很多的作业和课程，感觉和平时上学没什么区别，甚至还更累，而且还因为放假不能和很多朋友一起玩更觉单调无趣。孙老师让同学们用画画的方式展现自己的生活。有些同学画的内容丰富多彩，除了学习还有各种爱好填满了生活，而且很喜欢和父母一起去做很多有趣的事情，而有些同学在思考了半天后画出来的却只是坐在书桌前写作业的自己。随后孙老师让他们在背面画上自己想要添加的生活内容，于是接着出现的“玩”、“拥有真心朋友”、“增加兴趣爱好的时间”等等内容出现在纸上，充分反映了同学们的渴望，他们渴望自己的声音被听到，渴望父母能够看到他们的需求，理解他们的想法。
每一次的心理阅读分享同学们都感觉时间过得很快，于是有些同学们又来了第二次、第三次。每一次他们都意犹未尽，想要继续诉说自己的感受，所以孙老师向同学们推荐了学校的“小树洞”（心理咨询室），只要通过班主任老师预约就可以前往“小树洞”和心理老师交流，不论是开心的还是不开心的事都可以和她分享。或许《蛤蟆先生看心理医生》涉及到的一些专业心理知识同学们现在还不太能读懂，但这样的分享会让同学们对心理咨询有一定的了解，不抗拒，而当自己遇到问题的时候知道有渠道可以获得帮助，这或许就是阅读这本书带来的重要收获。
在今天充满碎片化阅读的网络时代，我们依然坚持通过各种活动推动书籍的广泛阅读和深度阅读，让同学们在阅读中感受不同的人生、不同的文化、不同的精彩。通过阅读，从文字到广阔的世界，通过分享交流，连接他人的精神世界，从而丰富自我，不断成长。六年级的阅读持续进行中，希望更多的同学们能参与到阅读、分享、交流的活动中来，下学期我们继续在阅读的道路上同行！
Grade 6 Reading Club: Growing by Reading
--Bilingual reading gives you powerful wings.
--Theme reading takes you into the wide world.
--Sharing and communicating help to express yourself and understand others.
The first semester of the 2021 academic year is coming to an end. Looking back on the sixth grade Reading Club activities at the end of the semester, we can see our students’ love and enthusiasm for reading. They participated in reading sharing and helped make the reading activities full of harvest.
I.Setting Up the Reading Corner and the Public Book Shelves
At the beginning of school, the recruitment poster of the Reading Club attracted students who like reading. During their first meeting, the three teachers in charge of the reading group—Ms. Chen, Ms. Zhao, and Mrs. Portillo—introduced the activity plan and announced that the main task of September was to establish a reading corner in the homerooms and the public shelves in the hallway.
Through the great efforts of 6th graders, reading corners in each class were built up. Books were recommended for reading every month, and various books that students had contributed were placed neatly on the shelves. Students could stop in front of the public bookshelves during recess and lunch breaks and take one book to read alone or with their friends together. They could sit on the sofa and immerse themselves in the world of books, enjoying their reading time.
II. Chinese & English Theme Reading Enables Students to Enter a Broad World
One of the major reading activities in Grade 6 this semester was theme reading. Different reading themes were set in Chinese and English, and relevant books were recommended for students to read according to each month’s articles.
For the Chinese readings, the theme in September and October is psychology. The book recommended was Counselling For Toads: A Psychological Adventure. In addition, books such as An Apology Letter from Grandma, Momma and the Meaning of Life were also placed on the bookshelf. The theme of November and December was science fiction reading. These books, With Her Eyes by Liu Cixin, I, Robot by Isaac Asimov, Folding Beijing by Hao Jingfang, as well as science fictions and magazines, were also on public shelves for students to read. In the last month, combined with the educational goals of cultivating “Independent Learners” and “Responsible Global Citizens,” some books related to learning and environmental protection were recommended, such as How We Learn and A Sand County Almanac.
The English teachers also recommended books on different topics. In September, Mrs. Portillo chose the first book, Stand Up, Yumi Chung! It’s about a Korean-American girl wanting to become a stand-up comedian. The first meeting for sharing was held in October. The students met to discuss the book and voted on the second book. They chose Escape From Witch City for November due to Halloween. And in November, students voted on a Christmas-themed read and picked J.K. Rowling’s new book, The Christmas Pig. In this story, on Christmas Eve, a young boy in England loses his favorite toy, a stuffed pig named DP, and goes on an adventure through the lost land to find him with his new toy. In the last sharing meeting of this semester, students voted on the January books that were themed around Asian mythology. They chose The Dragon Pearl and students are encouraged to read this novel over the winter holiday. In addition, the February book was announced, From the Desk of Zoe Washington. This book was picked as a celebration of Black History Month in February.
Reading on these different topics has opened more windows for students to immerse themselves in reading, pay attention to their inner world, expand the wings of imagination, explore the future, and appreciate different cultures.
III. Reading Sharing Hosted by the Psychology Teacher
In addition to recommending reading books, the sixth grade also invited teachers in relevant fields to share and exchange the contents of the books with the students. For example, we invited science fiction writers to discuss “science fiction and imagination.” The reading sharing meeting hosted by psychological teacher Ms. Sun was very popular among the students. This semester, it has been held five times, similar to an “Encore” after a concert.
Ms. Sun’s reading sharing was about the book Counselling For Toads: A Psychological Adventure. Some students who came to the sharing were a little reserved at first and even went with an attitude about completing the task. Still, Ms. Sun used the “emotion thermometer” idea from the book to let the students talk about “how you feel today” and guided them to use the three psychological states mentioned in the book to analyze their own and other people’s behaviors. More and more students began to express their true thoughts about self-evaluation and relationships with friends, classmates, and parents with this in-depth communication. During the last sharing on January 7, Ms. Sun asked the students to discuss their expectations for the coming winter vacation. Unexpectedly, some students were not excited about it because they were assigned a lot of homework and courses during the winter vacation or summer vacation in previous years—which was no different from school—or felt even more tired. And because they can’t see as many friends during vacations, it can be more boring than school. Ms. Sun asked the students to illustrate their life through drawing. Some students drew a lot of things on their papers. In addition to studying, they also had various hobbies and many exciting things they liked to do with their parents. After thinking for more than ten minutes, some students only drew themselves doing homework. Then Ms. Sun asked them to draw what they wanted to add into their life on the back page: playing, making more friends, and spending more time on hobbies. They were eager to be heard and hoped their parents would understand them better.
At the end of each psychology reading sharing, the students were reluctant to leave. Some students came for a second and third time. Every time they thought they might not have enough time to share their thoughts, so Ms. Sun introduced the “Psychology Counselling Room” to the students. As long as they made an appointment through their homeroom teacher, they could go to the Counselling Room to speak with the psychological teacher. They could share their feelings with her. Maybe students don’t know everything about psychology after reading Counselling For Toads: A Psychological Adventure. But sharing will help students have a particular understanding of it and less resistance to talking about these topics. When they encounter problems, they know that there is a place where they can get help, which is an essential gain from reading and sharing this book.
Nowadays, people prefer to fragmentary reading gradually. We still insist on promoting extensive reading to help students experience different lives, different cultures, and different highlights. Through reading, they go from words to the world; through sharing and communication, they connect with each other in spirit. Students enrich themselves and grow up continuously. The reading of grade 6 is ongoing. We encourage all students to participate and read books over the holiday. We will continue to walk together along the road of reading next semester!
文｜刘琛，陈凡，Kristen Portillo
图｜刘琛, 陈凡，Kristen Portillo
审稿｜黄诗媛，Brie Polette
Written by｜Liu Chen, Chen Fan, Kristen Portillo, Jess Scott
Pictures by｜Liu Chen, Chen Fan, Kristen Portillo
Edited by｜Huang Shiyuan, Brie Polette