This year in sixth grade, students are seeing and making those connections in many places and ways. We are once again challenging students to read a minimum of twenty books of their choice and to view the library as an extension of their classrooms and their lives. And we want them to be inspired by what they read to write, to create, and to act. In the visual arts classes, students will create art in response to the literature they're reading, and they will write to describe their artistic intentions and processes. The students will also use art to help better understand grammar. In their drama classes, they will connect the novels we read in English with plays that are referenced in or adapted from those works, enriching and strengthening their comprehension. Computer science is joining the fun as well. Starting with characters and the plot line inspired by the novel Wonder, students are using a design thinking approach in the Lydia Sneed Engineering Lab to create masks that will be enhanced using digital technology to help them deepen their empathy for and understanding of their summer reading. Through reading, writing, designing, creating, and acting, students will gain a deeper understanding of the connections between the literature they read and of the world they encounter.