Junior Great Books
An Interpretive Reading, Writing and Discussion Program

Myth For Kids is very pleased to partner with The Great Books Foundation, giving children and teachers monthly access to fine stories, activities, encouragement and teaching materials. We encourage teachers, administrators and home-schooling parents to use this excellent program to instill children with a love for reading and storytelling. In the Junior Great Books program, students have many opportunities to interact with thought-provoking literature as they develop their reading, writing, oral communication, and critical thinking skills. Because of the program's emphasis on discussion and its focus on interpretation, all students — whether or not they are reading at grade level — will be able to contribute and will grow in their ability to read and enjoy excellent literature.

Junior Great Books develops students' reading comprehension in the context of thinking about genuine problems of meaning raised by a selection. The Junior Great Books interpretive activities are designed to help students become more aware of their reactions as they read, value their own curiosity about a text, organize their ideas, develop a sensitivity to language, and explore new ideas through writing. Through Junior Great Books, students practice many reading and thinking skills: recalling and organizing details from the story, drawing inferences, analyzing characters' motives, and finding the main idea of a passage or the text as a whole.

The shared inquiry method of interpretive reading and discussion developed by the Great Books Foundation enables teachers to create a thoughtful learning environment in the classroom. Through their own curiosity and attentive questioning, teachers serve as partners in inquiry with their students, helping them work together to discover meaning in a selection and build interpretations. The Foundation provides training for teachers in leading Junior Great Books, and offers a variety of support materials.

• The Reading Component
• The Oral Component
• The Writing Component
• Art and Dramatization

• Activities and Objectives
• Shared Inquiry Discussion
• Writing After Discussion

To the Parent Volunteer and Enrichment Teacher

To order a FREE Sample Unit
or to discover how The Great Books Foundation promotes
Shared Inquiry Discussions
of great literature for children and adults,
please visit the Great Books Foundation website