Literature Circles Blog Post 1

The Task ~ Post Literature Circle - Blog Post - The aim of Literature circles is to provide a way for students to take part in discussions, collaborate constructively and reason critically. We are sure during your groups discussion that your have added to your understanding of the characters, the setting and the plot of your chosen novel. In a well structured blog post, reflect and write about the following:

1. How you discussion helped your understanding of the novel.

2. Connections that you made during your discussion

3. Predictions

A quality response does not retell your discussion. Minimum requirements - 3 paragraphs.

The discussion helped me understand how to do proper literature circle discussions. First, I learned more about the expectations and what it is mandatory to bring to each literature circle discussion: your response sheet and your book. It also helped me understand the range different interpretations of a passage, depending on a person's opinion, how they viewed the passage and the meaning that they interpreted. I understand more how to view other people's interpretations, by reading through the passage and trying to see how someone could interpret it in that way. Next, I learned that it is helpful to put post-it notes while going through the book, to mark important parts, parts you don't understand, parts that show the author's writing technique and parts you think that are interesting and should be shared. Finally, I learned that it is useful to have the discussion book in hand throughout the discussion. This is because you can use it to refer to the passages, responses,discussion questions and the context of the vocabulary that they found interesting or a word that they didn't know until then. 

A connection I made during the discussion, was that most of us found that the part when the porter refused to carry Charlotte's bag was important. I think that Avi: the author might have wanted this passage to be considered important. I think this because he used a style of writing that made this passage stand out to us. It's with this technique that he brings us to see the many ways that show the passages importance. It's important because you can start to see that The Sea hawk's voyage will be anything but, pleasant. Which I find unlucky for Charlotte because of the challenges and self assessment she has to go through. Not to mention, a constant check that her judgement is correct.  

A prediction I can make in the story is that Charlotte will be framed of murder because of Captain Jaggery. I think this because the blurb on the back of the book states: "Not every girl is accused of murder, brought to trial and found guilty..." I think that Captain Jaggery will most definitely have something to do with her accusation, either being the one who accuses her of the deed or the person who brought her to do it. I think that she might be brought to do this because she is always obeying Captain Jaggery's word and believes that he is noble and is just like her father, like she tells him earlier in the book. 

A possibility might also be that she kills him out of sudden spite or anger at his insisted cruelty, that the kind Zachariah insists is true. She might discover herself soon, hopefully it will be before it's too late. By too late, I mean before Captain Jaggery has damaged or hurt more than Charlotte, because of his cruelty.

And with that, I conclude my Literature Circles Discussion Blog Post, Thanks!