Lit. circle response: The City of Ember

I was part of the City of Ember literature circle. Overall, my experience as a member of this literature circle was very positive. I thought the book itself was great. As it did for many other members of my group, the book pulled me in right away. I finished the book very quickly because I couldn't let myself put it down. This was the type of book where you needed to know what was going to happen next, even if that meant getting a little less sleep in order to do so. I wanted to know whether Lina and Doon made it to the new city that Lina dreamed of. While the ending left me with closure, I'm hoping I can find time to read the other books in this series to answer questions I still have about Ember and it's people. I think that The City of Ember would be a great book for children in the upper elementary grades to use for a literature circle. For younger grades, I think this book would be a great read aloud. In both instances, I can see potential for great discussions and opportunities for students to make connections with the story.

My group chose to try the movie production literature circle. I personally really liked this format of the literature circle. I think it makes the roles a little more exciting and meaningful for students. I also think it encourages students to notice detail in the story, allowing them to visualize what is going on and therefore creating a movie in their head as they read. After discussing the other books after our last lit circles, I think it's important for teachers to know the books that they are assigning because as The Book Thief group noticed, it would be difficult to make their book into a movie production. Teachers shouldn't offer the movie production option to students if the book does not fit the format well. Also, when using the movie option, I think that it would be difficult to actually make books into a production, but having each student make actual products for their role would be appropriate. Of course if time allowed for an actual production for a portion of the movie to be made, that would be a lot of fun. I liked Sue's idea that she shared in class of just watching the actual movie version of the book if one is available.

In general, the literature circle is a great way for students to discuss books. In our group we discussed that each child should be allowed to initially choose a role so that they can be successful as a member of a lit circle. This would allow students to use their own intelligences and get the students excited about reading their book. We also did discuss though that the roles should be switched in order to give everyone turns with particular roles and to challenge themselves. We thought it was important to break the chapters up so that children would have less chapters to read and therefore be able to focus on the selected ones more carefully. Not to mention, it would be less overwhelming for the students. The literature circle is a great way to involve each student in the process of reading a book. Like in our City of Ember group, each group member had a separate role which made them accountable for a particular piece of work. It gave everyone the opportunity to talk about the book which would initiate great conversation around different topics. As the director for the second half of the book, I found that it would be important for the teacher to guide certain roles, such as the director. For example, the director should be instructed to ask questions that provoke different responses such as transparent or performative. These questions would be more meaningful than a student asking his or her group members yes or no questions.

I think that the lit. circles enable students to feel empowered in their own learning, but it is also okay for teachers to guide their students in the right direction. Teachers should know each of their students so that they can pick books that would best fit their interests and abilities.

All in all, my literature circle experience was very positive and I hope to use it in my own class someday.