Wonder and Precepts

Last week we finished our first read aloud of the year - Wonder, by R.J. Palacio. This book is about a fifth grader, August Pullman, who has severe facial deformities.

Here are some student responses to the book: 

Emily: It changed my perspective of how I see people with a disability or something you don't see every day. 

Rebecca: It made me think that just because somebody is different, it doesn't mean you should treat them differently because everybody is the same in a way. 

Larissa: It gave you two sides to the story because the bad guy might think that he's not doing anything wrong. 

Mia: I liked the book because Auggie was really brave to go to a regular school even though he knew he was going to be teased about his deformity and his face. 

Karoliena: It made me think don't judge people from what they look like. 

Will: If you bully somebody, it shows how they feel when they get bullied. 

AJ: It's like some of the characters in the book could be really nice and some people could be really mean. 

Arielle: The book is really awesome. 

Now, we are reading The Julian Chapter, which is a section of the book created after the book was published, told from the point of view of August's main tormenter. 

In the book Wonder, Mr. Browne, one of August's teachers, shares precepts, or "words to live by" with the students. R.J. Palacio has recently published a book of precepts. 

Each morning, we read the precept of the day and discuss what it means to us. This has become a very special time each morning, and we would like to share some of our thoughts with you (pause if you would like to stay on a particular slide longer than 5 seconds).