Dozens of Flat Rock Middle and Rugby Middle students gathered in Rugby’s gym Tuesday night were furiously scribbling onto crossword puzzles, hoping to be the first group to crack the code allowing them out of “the Glade” and into the maze beyond.
As the kickoff celebration of Flat Rock’s new book club, its members joined their peers at Rugby in a night of activities based on “The Maze Runner” by James Dashner.
Both book clubs had chosen the popular young adult dystopian novel as the book to read in December, and student leaders in Rugby’s book club – the Reading Raiders – planned a school-wide maze of activities based on the book.
In “The Maze Runner,” adolescents are transported to the Glade, a community surrounded by a giant maze of unknown evil that opens to the Glade each morning and closes each night, explained Karen Maxon, Rugby’s library media specialist.
She said each teen has a job within the Glade and, “The coveted job was to be a runner.”
The runners left the Glade each morning to run the maze in hopes of discovering the way out, and report back to the community each night; if stuck outside the Glade’s walls overnight they fall victim to “Grievers,” creatures that kill with a sting.
On Tuesday, student groups earned the right to become runners and navigate the school once completing the crossword puzzle in “the Glade” or gymnasium. Their objective was to complete at least seven of the 10 timed activities stationed in different classrooms – or areas of the maze – before 7:30 p.m.
In one room, students had to act out scenes from the book in a game of charades, and in another they used art supplies to build a model of the Glade from memory. Groups also discussed dystopian themes in a scaled-down Socratic seminar, and played Pictionary on white boards using vocabulary from the book.
“It helps them with their comprehension, because they’re reading for clues,” said Mandy Parr, health teacher and book club coach at Flat Rock. “The kids are so excited. They’ve been pumped up all day.”
Maxon and Dr. Kristy Kowalske started the Reading Raiders at Rugby in 2002, and Flat Rock is modeling its new book club after the peer group.
“It’s promoted as a parent-student book club,” Maxon said, explaining that the goal is to have parents and students read the same book each month and participate in the book club activities together.
“I’ve already got some parents that are interested in the one we’re doing next month,” said Natalie Ezell, media specialist at Flat Rock and organizer of the school’s new book club.
“The activities are fun,” said Cindy Gaffney, mother of a Rugby student. “They put a lot of creativity into it,” she said, giving kudos to Rugby’s student leaders.
“It’s good to see the kids get excited about the book,” said Natalie Gilbert, mother of a Rugby student.
Ezell added that the evening’s joint activities reinforced the idea that “reading is an equalizer.”
“Through a book, now you have the same interest – and it’s instant,” Ezell said.
(Article written by Molly McGowan Gorsuch at Henderson County Public Schools.)