Tip for Uglies

I just finished reading the second round of responses from section 1's Esperanza discussion. Almost all of the facilitators said something about how it was hard to go back to the book and find examples as their groups talked.

For Uglies I would suggest that everyone come up with a post-it or note taking system so that people can find their favorite passages, moments that bugged them in the story, etc. (I'll do the same.)

Session 10: Esperanza Rising and Issues of Diversity

Hi everyone,

For session 10, we'll have our discussion of Esperanza Rising, by Pam Munoz Ryan. I'm curious to see whether it feels different to discuss a novel, rather than a picture book! (Since this is a long text, I strongly suggest you use post-its and/or record page numbers as a reference to use in discussion!)

The other topic we'll explore has to do with issues of multicultural or diverse literature. Although I've tried to incorporate diverse books throughout the semester, this topic is important to foreground because of the underrepresentation and misrepresentation of traditionally marginalized social and cultural groups. Two readings will help you prepare for this discussion:

• C&G Chapter 11 (Building a Culturally Diverse Literature Collection)
• CIBC: “10 Quick Ways to Evaluate for…” (on Angel)

As always, papers are due by 6 pm the night before class!

Valerie

Session 5: Where the Wild Things Are

In next week's session we'll be having our first small group literature discussion!

• Read Where the Wild Things Are. (I would suggest you read it several times. I usually do my first read "just for pleasure" and then do more careful reads.)
• If you don't know, check the list on Angel to see what letter you have been assigned. Then check the schedule to see what response role you will be taking on for the book.
  
• Refer to the syllabus for a description of your role and write a response. Those who are assigned artistic response need to create a response and write a paper. Those who are assigned intertextual response need to look for one or more other "texts" to bring to their reading of WtWTA.
  

• Submit your papers to the Angel dropbox by 6 pm the night BEFORE class meets. To clarify, you should upload your paper as an attachment. The attachment should be labeled according to the directions in the syllabus. Do NOT cut an paste your paper in the box!
  
• Bring a hard copy of your paper to class for reference and to give to your facilitator.

• Don't forget that you need to post or comment during the first 5 weeks of class!
  

Next week we'll share our responses in our small groups, debrief with the whole class, and watch a video that shows what literature circles might look like in the classroom.

Comment on this post with your questions as they occur to you! If you have a more particular question, please email me!

Literature Discussion Groups

We had quite a few people absent this week, so I wanted to let everyone know that I've posted the lists that indicate who is in each discussion group (by color) and role responses (by letter) on the Angel site. I'll also keep posting power point slides. (Remind me if I forget!)

American Born Chinese: Lattice Group

I just went to a bookclub discussion of "American Born Chinese". I'm going to save what I got out of it until we're together in person and I can show you the book.

We've talked a little bit about how the context of reading and discussion makes a big difference. (Little wonder that we started off with food and bit of catching up with old friends!) Only then did we move into talking about the book. Some people had done research on the author, others talked about graphic novels in general, we spent some time looking at particular illustrations that we liked or had problems with, people asked questions about the ending, someone passed around a couple of resources on China, etc.

I guess my point is that talking about books helps us understand texts, but it is also fun! I hope that we can recreate some of that in our class. (And maybe you will in your future classes!)