Our Novel Study – “Front Desk” by Kelly Yang

Division 6 has begun our first class novel of the year, “Front Desk”. This New York Times best seller, and award winning book is based on the life of the author, Kelly Yang (although the main character is named Mia in the book). Here is a short summary of the book:

“Mia Tang has a lot of secrets. Number 1: She lives in a motel, not a big house. Every day, while her immigrant parents clean the rooms, ten-year-old Mia manages the front desk of the Calivista Motel and tends to its guests. Number 2: Her parents hide immigrants. And if the mean motel owner, Mr. Yao, finds out they’ve been letting them stay in the empty rooms for free, the Tangs will be doomed. Number 3: She wants to be a writer. But how can she when her mom thinks she should stick to math because English is not her first language? It will take all of Mia’s courage, kindness, and hard work to get through this year. Will she be able to hold on to her job, help the immigrants and guests, escape Mr. Yao, and go for her dreams?” (Amazon.com)

This book deals with many themes, such as immigration, racism, bullying, poverty, having big dreams, and the power of the written word. Students are making connections to their own lives and experiences, while also linking this knowledge to our Social Studies unit on Immigration. So far we are enjoying the book, and the class has lots to talk about in our discussions.

Here is a link to more information about the book, and the author.

Our first Explorations

Division 6 has spent the last 5 weeks Exploring various topics that interest us. Students chose a topic, skill, or area of interest and learned about it each week during our “Explorations” time. They began by gathering a list of resources (books and websites) that would help them along the way. They set an end goal, and made a plan for the steps they would need to accomplish each week in order to reach it. Finally, they presented their learning to the class. We had a wide range of topics, including:

  • coding
  •  visual/special effects in movies
  • miniatures
  • Diwali
  • history – Ancient Egypt & the evolution of man
  • Japanese
  • construction
  • graphic design
  • and many more!

Our first Explorations was a huge success. I look forward to seeing what you all explore next!