For the past two years, Woodland English teachers, Joelle Kilcourse and Paul Geary, have sponsored the region wide event, “One Region, One Book.” The event is a district wide initiative to encourage reading across Region 16.
This year Kilcourse and Geary chose selected stories from The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Connan Dole.
“We figured that the stories in Sherlock Holmes are short and easily accessible to students,” explained Geary. “We also wanted the book for this year to be something classical and traditional.”
In the past the two English teachers have funded most of the activities. This year however, Kilcourse and Geary received an innovation grant from the District that allowed them to expand One Region One Book.
So far their have been a number of activities that correspond with Sherlock Holmes. In the fall Kilcourse and Geary sponsored a scavenger hunt at Woodland. Riddles were sent out to students via Twitter. The first students to solve the riddles and report back to one of the teachers won a copy of Sherlock Holmes.
Kilcourse and Geary also held an event in December in which the Beacon Falls resident state trooper and a Crime Scene Investigator for the state of Connecticut did a presentation about crime solving. The goal of the evening was to have students compare the themes in Sherlock with modern crime solving techniques.
In December, there was also a book club held at Woodland. Members of the Beacon Falls Library Book Club met with students and teachers after school to discuss the book.
Geary and Kilcourse have also hosted two events for elementary schools students in the district pertaining to One Region One Book. One event was held at Algonquin School in Prospect and the other at Laurel Ledge in Beacon Falls.
“At each of these events students got to pick from seven different stations where they did activities modeled after Sherlock Holmes,” said Kilcourse. “The activities were based on common core skills like critical thinking and making observations.”
Woodland teachers and students ran the stations for the children at both of these 9o minutes programs.
Samantha Erickson, fifth grader at Community School in Prospect was extremely excited to attend the event.
“I’m having so much fun,” she said. “It’s interesting to be a detective and do activities like them.”
Kilcourse and Geary are also hoping to hold a film night at The Strand Theater in Seymour where they will show the movie Young Sherlock Holmes.
“We are hoping that with these activties we can create a community of readers,” said Kilcourse. “We want to foster a love of reading in students of all ages and help to make them into life long learners.”
