BRMS Literacy Team with Dr. Bowen

On Thursday, Black River Middle School held a school-wide assembly to kick off our One School, One Book program.  The One School, One Book program is a unique opportunity for the entire school body to read one novel and participate in activities surrounding that novel.  Not only will students read the novel at school, they will also get a copy of it to keep and add to their personal book collection.  The novel we are reading this year is entitled “Restart,” by Gordon Korman.  It features a protagonist who has gotten a concussion and is suffering from amnesia and must learn what kind of person he was by the way others treat him.  He must make a choice about who he wants to be going forward.  As our keynote speaker, we invited Dr. Kim Bowen to address our students and answer their questions about concussions and amnesia.  Dr. Bowen is a retired Emergency Medicine physician with over 35 years of experience.  He kindly donated his time and delivered a fascinating talk on brain injuries like the one suffered by the main character in the novel, and was able to provide a wealth of background information for our students to have as they begin to read “Restart.”   We are planning on the students creating projects that go along with the book to feature at a Community Literacy Night after we have finished reading.  Additionally, we are excited to be partnering with Mapleton Middle School in reading the same novel and look forward to engaging in some pen pal activities with them as we read.  We’re looking forward to great things happening here at BRMS by bringing our community together through literacy!  We are BR!!