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CSUSM Common Read

Building Community through Reading

Instructor Materials

These assignments are meant to provide inspiration on using the Common Read titles in GEL.

Banned Books Bingo - Students work in groups or individually to complete a Banned Books Bingo Card (link forthcoming) to explore materials and events about the Common Read theme.

Banned Book Club - Students read and develop discussion questions about a Common Read title, and discuss the book in small groups. Students complete a reflection to share what they learned.

Impacted Communities - Students select a title and work in groups to research the community portrayed or impacted by the book. Students will learn about book bans and the impact they have on marginalized communities, along with the current state of affairs for those communities.

 

Activities

  • Have students watch the videos and identify what they thought was the most pressing issue, the fact they found the most interesting, and the one element where they still had questions.
  • Have students create a social problems tree. The trunk of the tree is the issue of banning books. Have students draw the roots of the tree along with three boxes below the trunk. In these three boxes, have students identify what they think are the primary root causes of book banning. Above the trunk, have students draw branches along with three boxes. In the boxes, students should identify the three main consequences to society of book bans.
  • Ask students to watch the history video and one of the contemporary videos. Ask them what themes from the historical video are represented in the contemporary bans.

 

Lists of banned books by year

Activities

  • Have students choose a year or decade (perhaps the one where they were born or a teenager). Ask them to review the list of banned books and count how many they have read. Ask them to reflect on the books they have read. Can they think of why the book was banned? Did they find reading the book valuable? Did they find anything about the book objectionable?

  • Have students participate in the Dear, Banned Author activity and have them write a letter to an author. 

Activities

  • Have students react to the news story in a brief paragraph. In a follow-up paragraph have students connect issues from the story to reading, video, or discussion covered in class.

  • Have students write an op-ed in response to one of these stories.

Banned books in the news

Have students explore the websites of groups working against book bans

Activities

  • Have students choose one of the organizations above. Have students briefly explain the organization's goal in their own words. Have students choose and describe two different actions the organization uses to advocate for its mission. What other activities do the students think might be beneficial in achieving the organization’s goals?

Activities

Have students reflect on whether they think the bans/challenges are genuine in nature. In other words, are the challenges being made for the characteristics being stated, or are these challenges about broader issues (LGBTQ, critical race theory, social justice) instead?

 

Have students read and reflect/discuss this quote:

...as the lawmakers of ancient China and the Nazis in Czechoslovakia decided, an educated people cannot be governed; because the conquered peoples must change their history or their beliefs, like the Aztecs; because only the illiterate can save the world, a common theme of the millenarian preachers of every era; because the nature of a great collection of books is a threat to the new power. - Lucien X. Polastron 2007 Books on Fire: The Destruction of Libraries Throughout History

  • How does this quote connect to the contemporary issue of book bans/challenges? How do those in power get to decide the appropriateness of books for all? Given that some groups have historically and systematically had less access to power, how do the issues of stratification and inequality affect decisions to ban books?