This section of the Planet Book Club web site links classrooms around the country in a discussion of The Fighting Ground by Avi. It assumes that everyone is starting on the same date (January 25, 1999) and reading the book at the same pace. (The Student Comments page has an outline of weekly reading assignments. Please note that the pace will be three lessons/reading assignments per week, instead of five.)

The online activity is based on the lesson plan published in the Book Club teacher's handbook. The handbook and its companion videotape outline the Book Club program in detail and provide lesson plans for many other books, including Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli, Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt, and Last Summer with Maizon by Jacqueline Woodson. See the ordering information available at this web site.

Introducing Students to the Online Discussion

In the days leading up to the online discussion, build students' excitement for the activity and prepare them to take part in it. Tell them that they're going to read a great book and talk about it with their classmates in Book Club. Each day they'll also have the chance to communicate with students in other classrooms who are reading The Fighting Ground. By using the Internet, they can share the best ideas that come out of their reading logs and book club discussions with their peers in other regions.

Introduce students to the Student Comment Form and the Student Comments About The Fighting Ground page, and make sure they understand how the online discussion will work. You'll want to give some advance thought to how you will integrate this online communication into your daily routine. For example, you might set aside a block of time each day when students can take turns at the computer, or you might arrange a rotating schedule so that each child gets to write in every other day.

Accessing the Online Discussion

Use these links to go to read the comments that we've received so far, or to access the forms that allow you and your students to submit comments:

Links to Related Resources

The following are links to some web sites that you might find useful during your teaching of The Fighting Ground.

• Avi's Home Page -- Contains information about the author and all of his books. In particular, you might want to check out Avi's comments about The Fighting Ground (what inspired him to write it).

• Learning About Avi -- Prepared by Megan Hall, an 8th-grade student at John Jay Middle School, Cross River, New York

• Ask the Author -- An interview with Avi at the Internet Public Library Youth Division

• LIBERTY! The American Revolution -- Official online companion to a series of six one-hour documentaries originally broadcast on PBS

• The Birth of a Nation -- An informative web site created by 6th-grade students