Novel Discussion

1.26.10 Reflection from Courtney Humphreys on Vimeo.

Yesterday I tried a new format for our novel discussion (we are reading The Twenty-One Balloons). Usually we all sit on the carpet in front of the Smartboard and discuss the chapter page by page, and the boys share the marks they made as we add ideas to our character and setting posters. Instead of doing this, I broke the boys into groups and assigned them each a few pages from the chapter. They assigned their own recorders who took notes on butcher paper, and then they presented their ideas to the class. We talked about what makes a good group presentation, and they were all very organized and prepared. I don't think we discussed as much from the chapter as we usually do, but as their reflections show below, they were able to focus on specific pages. I've talked about giving my students agency, and I think this is one way to do that-- to let them determine the best way to organize our novel discussions.