MA WOW! 2020 Home
Apprenticeships:
Building a Nation
Community Art club
Crime Scene Investigation
DesignWorks Club
Escape Room Club
Fantasy and Sci-Fi
Health and Wellness
Investigative reporting
Lego Robotics
Makers Challenge
Nerd DIY
Pencil Code
Robotics
Secrets of a Millionaire
Smart Money
Time to Invent
Virtual Book Club
Youth-Led Journalism
Teaching Fellow: Lucy (AFAS)
After Citizen Schools went virtual, Argenziano students and teaching fellows were looking for ways to keep up the sense of community they had created during the school year. I proposed a virtual book club, where the scholars and I would read the same book and come together once a week to discuss it.
6th graders Molly and Anarghya brought life to the idea. They suggested the club read a book called “Fever: 1793” by Laurie Halse Anderson. It follows 14-year-old Matilda, who grows up quickly when the Yellow Fever Epidemic strikes Philadelphia. She finds herself taking care of family members who formerly took care of her, recovers from the fever herself, and watches people’s varied reactions to the epidemic as the city she grew up in changes before her eyes. Molly and Anarghya suggested this book because they thought it might connect to the situation we’re currently facing with COVID-19—and it most certainly did. This book yielded rich discussions of comparisons between the Yellow Fever in 1793 and the Coronavirus in 2020 (see image below), as well as thoughtful reflection on our own emotions and experiences that relate to the character Matilda. Meeting with Molly and Anarghya was one of the highlights of my week this spring—I’m so proud of their introspection, intelligence and kind hearts! To see some of the shenanigans we got up to, scroll down to watch the movie trailer Anarghya created for the book at the end of our time together.