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    One School, One Book (OSOB) is a program designed to create a shared reading experience within a single elementary school community. A chapter book is chosen, every student receives a copy. Activities at school coordinate promote and enrich the shared reading experience.

    Hallen School has participated in the One School One Book for the past three years. Every student gets a copy of the selected book.  It is read in school by every student. Students meet with their reading partners, in small groups, guided reading groups, and read independently. This process creates a rich dialogue with students across grade levels. Teachers work on creating interdisciplinary lessons that incorporate all content areas and learning styles.    

    Masterpiece by Elise Broachis a 2009 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year. This was our first book that was read at Hallen School.  The author visited our students and signed every book after giving the students an excellent presentation.

    Marvin lives with his family under the kitchen sink in the Pompadays’ apartment. He is very much a beetle. James Pompaday lives with his family in New York City. He is very much an eleven-year-old boy. After James gets a pen-and-ink set for his birthday, Marvin surprises him by creating an elaborate miniature drawing. James gets all the credit for the picture and before these unlikely friends know it they are caught up in a staged art heist at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that could help recover a famous drawing by Albrecht Dürer. But James can’t go through with the plan without Marvin’s help. And that’s where things get really complicated (and interesting!). This fast-paced mystery will have young readers on the edge of their seats as they root for boy and beetle.
     
    The Tale of Despereaux is a 2004     Newbery Medal winning fantasy book written by Kate DiCamillo. This was our second book that was read at Hallen School. Students would tell me how much they had read and they couldn’t wait to read more to find out what happens to the characters.

    The main plot follows the adventures of a mouse named Despereaux Tilling, as he sets out on his quest to rescue a beautiful human princess from the rats. The novel is divided into four "books," (meaning a new point of view) chapters, and a coda. Each "book" tells the story from the perspective of a different character: Despereaux, Roscuro, Miggery Sow, and all together.

    In 2008, the book was adapted into an animated film of the same name. Based on a 2007 online poll, the National Education Association named the book as one of its "Teachers' Top 100 Books for Children."[1] It was one of the "Top 100 Chapter Books" of all time in a 2012 poll by School Library Journal.[2]



    For the third year, our students read the The Jungle Book  by Rudyard Kipling who was born in India to British parents in 1865 and lived in Bombay -- now called Mumbai -- until the age of six. As a child, he was fascinated by tales of the Indian jungle and its animals, and learned Indian myths and legends in the local language. After 10 years in England, Kipling returned to India and worked as a writer and newspaper editor under the British Raj. Kipling later said that he conceived the seeds of the "Jungle Book" stories during this period. 

    Hallen School incorporated OSOB, Turnaround Arts, and RULER. Teachers implemented interdisciplinary units across grade levels. Our students watched the movie, read the book, and put on our first musical, The Jungle Book.