Wonder by RJ Palacio (age range 8-12)

“I won’t describe what I look like. Whatever you’re thinking, it’s probably worse.”

August Pullman, called Auggie by his close friends and family is a ten-year old boy, born with severe facial differences. Little kids hide behind their mothers when they see his face. Older kids are disgusted by him. But what they don’t see is behind the multiple surgeries that he is a normal ten-year-old kid. He has a dog that he loves more than anything called Daisy, he likes Star Wars and Halloween is his favourite holiday. Homeschooled for four years, he is starting in fifth grade at Beecher Prep.

Wonder tells of his struggles, frienships and most of all the power of kindness in an engaging and joyful read.

At school, a lot of you have probably heard of different types of learners.

• There are visual learners, who prefer to look at information in pictures and graphs
• Aural learners, who learn best when they can process the information through hearing it
• Kinaesthetic learners, who absorb information best with hands-on activities
• And, reading and writing learners, which, the name speaks for itself.

However, before you identify what your learning STYLE is, I want to first give some tips on working habits.

Although there is a wide range of different habits, I would say that there are two main groups.

First, there is something I like to call the ‘flow’ group. These types of students are reasonably loose with their studying and prefer to go with the flow. Instead of creating a timetable or follow a set structure to their learning, they have short spurts of work, which blends and becomes merged with break and relaxation times. They often struggle to finish work in a concentrated amount of time because of distractions, but they have a healthy relaxed approach to learning.

On the other hand, the ‘order’ group, are students who always have a fixed timetable, and a disciplined approach when it comes to study time. They can concentrate remarkably well and normally complete homework within a set time. These are those people whose desks are on the more organised side of things. However, their inflexible attitude to work means that they are unable to relax when it comes to taking a break, and often feel guilty when doing so.

Now, I understand that no one is completely one type, but I would like you to pick the one that you identify with most because… *drumroll*

Here are some specific tips to each type!