Middle School Reading Group
The Reading Group was started in January of the last academic year and continues to thrive under the leadership of Ms Scott. The Reading Group, for Fourths, Divisions and Fifths, meets once a week on Thursdays during The Hour. We focus on plays and discuss the themes and characters of the various plays, expanding our breadth of knowledge beyond the confines of the IGCSE syllabus.
The Reading Group began by exploring and discussing the recognised American classic, Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, noting how the play acted as a critique of the old South's outdated attitudes regarding masculinity and race in the late 1940s. Since then, we then progressed to read A Doll's House by Ibsen and Betrayal by Pinter. These plays all differ in style and themes but share some similarities in themes: masculinity and the importance of power in both A Doll's House and A Streetcar Named Desire, and the emotional conflict within intimate relationships in both Betrayal and Hare's Skylight, which we are currently reading.
The sessions often include vehement and topical discussions with students taking a liking to certain characters within the plays and presenting their views in a logical manner. Just recently, as we read through Skylight, we have been discussing the complicated father-son relationship between Tom and Edward Sergeant following the demise of Tom's wife, and which character we side with.
The reading sessions are of great benefit to us, as not only do they provide us with a platform to broaden our intellectual horizons but also, they also provide us with an opportunity to explore different writing skills, which will prove invaluable for the Writing sections of the English Language IGCSE and beyond. The group is always looking for new plays to read and discuss, and is also always seeking new members, who share a similar love for Literature. Attending sessions of the Reading Group will provoke much thought and discussion and will also improve focus, vocabulary and spelling.
