One Community, One Book Celebration held in the Middle School at CNG!

The Middle School held its first-ever One Community, One Book Activity this semester, hosted by our Middle School Humanities Team! All students and teachers read Before the Ever After by Jacqueline Woodson during school hours and came together to participate in a variety of discussions and activities inspired by the novel. Highlights included a video chat with Dr. Kate Frick about concussions and the importance of protecting the brain during physical activity, followed by a demonstration of return-to-sport concussion protocols. Students also created original poems modeled after those in the book, discussed how friendship helps people through difficult times, moved and danced to songs featured in the novel, and built “walls of gratitude” and “friendship circles” celebrating community and support.

To make it a true community event, teachers and staff from different grade levels and departments joined as guest readers, bringing everyone together through the shared joy of reading and storytelling. The day was a wonderful celebration of literacy, connection, and creativity, and the shared experience of completing an entire novel together will continue to enrich conversations across all subject areas.

This was the first time CNG has hosted such an event, and the response was overwhelmingly positive. One 8th-grade teacher reflected, “I can’t remember the last time I got to just read out loud with the kids and immerse myself in a novel like this—it was so well put together and easy to facilitate.” Another participant noted, “That was a lot of planning, so I appreciate the emphasis on literacy and creating community in such a creative way.” We highly recommend celebrating literacy across the curriculum like this in your schools.

By: Alana Frick & Natalie Fisher