Literature Circle Reflection - The City of Ember

I really enjoyed our literature circle on the book “The City of Ember”. We chose to do the movie production literature circle. We set it up by splitting the book in half and having chapters 1-10 read for the first circle meeting and chapters 11-20 read for the second. We then assigned roles by writing the roles on cards and picking one. We chose to combine the role of director and manager because we felt it was the same, and it also gave us 8 roles. That was perfect for our 8 member group. We also decided to have different roles for the second meeting and drew cards again so people could move forward if needed.

Meeting #1
For the first meeting we went outside and shared our role products. We started with sharing our reactions to the first half of the book. We discussed how many of us were trying to decipher the message with Lina and Doon, how we imaged the city of Ember to look like, our reactions and feelings to Granny dying, and asked questions like where do they go to the bathroom and what is in the unknown region? We then went through the roles starting with the Critic. This girl needed to summarize each chapter. We felt this was a great place to start our discussion because it provided us with a review of what happened in the first 10 chapters. I went next. My role was the Storyboard artist. I had to summarize the book, but in pictures. So I drew pictures of the important scenes. We then went through the other roles; the Casting Director sharing her choice of actors to play the characters, the Production Manager who made a collage of pictures describing the scenery and props one would need for a movie production, the Soundtrack Designer deciding to use instrumental music to show the deep feelings the people of Ember experienced, the Dialogue Director who went through the book and picked out important dialogue one would include in the movie production, the Analyst who found the common themes in the book, and finally the Director who presented us with questions either we could answer or a teacher could present to their students.

Meeting #2
This meeting was much more open than the first one. I think this was because we were familiar with the format of the literature circle, but also because we all knew everyone had finished the book and we could finally all discuss it. This meeting started off with us discussing the ending of the book. We shared our feelings, questions, and reactions to this book. We then discussed what we thought was impossible or ridiculous asking questions like where do they get oxygen, where do they put the people who pass away, and how perfect it was that they find a hole that leads to Ember and they can drop the note they forget to leave? Next we discussed Lina, Doon, and Poppy’s entrance into the new world and how funny it was that Lina thought the new world was bright and it was just nighttime, why this underground city was built and what they were escaping, and how many of us wanted to read the next 3 books. Many of us had the first chapter to the second book in our book and we discussed how we were curious how the people of Ember were settling into the new world.

After discussing our reactions, we went through the roles in the same order as the first time. First the Critic went and summarized the second half of the book, then the Storyboard Artist sharing her summary in pictures. Next I went sharing my choice of actors for the 4 characters that reappeared in the book this time having a bigger role than in the first half of the book. Then the Soundtrack artist shared her CD of music for the second half of the book. We listened to this CD while we finished the roles. Finally, the Production Artist, Dialogue Director, Analyst, and Director went. In this circle meeting, you asked us to discuss how our format worked and to come up with some Frequently Asked Questions. We discussed how we all enjoyed doing the literature circle as a movie production and how we would do this with our future students. We talked about how we would use this book for 5th or 6th graders and split the chapters into smaller chunks. We also discussed how interesting it was to switch the roles and how we would do this with our students, as well as grouping them. We enjoyed this format of the literature circle and felt it offered other intelligences and cooperation.

Final Reflection
I really enjoyed the book “The City of Ember”. I was totally hooked and could not put this book down. I wanted to know how Lina and Doon got out of Ember and what the instructions said. I ended up finishing the book before our first literature circle. My book also had the first chapter of the second book in the end. I read it and hope to read the other three books. If I ever teach older grades, I would use this book in my curriculum.

I also really enjoyed doing the literature circle in the format of a movie production. This format made the assignment of discussing and reading a book feel less like work and more interesting. I was interested to see what the other girls had produced and what they would bring to the circle meetings. I also liked how this format was a group contribution. Everyone worked together to create a “movie production”. I would definitely use this format with my future students because it makes reading a book a little more interesting, offers children the possibilities of working through many intelligences, and gives the students something to work towards.

The strengths of a movie production literature circle are the possibilities of hitting the Multiple Intelligences, the product the students produce, the knowledge and comprehension they gain, and guideline worksheets provided that describe and guide students in their roles. Some weaknesses are this production may take a lot of effort and time with students and there were many roles. This may be overwhelming for some students. Some modifications I would do for implementing this into my classroom is grouping students into groups where they are assigned one role, switching the roles, and assigning less chapters.

Overall, I enjoyed the book and literature circle and plan to do this in my future classroom.