Happy Holidays!

This week, we are continuing with our novel circles.  Students are successfully navigating the process of reading, stopping, talking and recording during class.  The topics of discussion in the circles are rich and varied.

We are going to choose a small chunk of reading to complete over the break.  I will email or call the families of each of the grade nine students, to let parents/guardians know how many pages the student will be expected to read.  Then, when we come back in January, we can discuss the section we read over break.

I hope you all have a safe and restful break.  See you in 2013!

Character Questions and Connections

We spent the first half of class today, reading our books in our groups.  We talked about questions we would ask the protagonist, connections we can make to his/her life, feelings we think he/she is experiencing and predictions about what we think will happen to him/her in the next few chapters.  Most students are taking turns reading aloud, and we are having GREAT conversations about what we are reading!

We then debriefed the "Simpsons" episode we watched last class, talking specifically about who the protagonist was, who/what the antagonists are, and about examples of internal and external conflict.  Students are really beginning to understand what those elements of fiction are and how to apply them to the book they are reading.