Collaborative Lit. Circles

1. The benefits of working with a classmate:
     The benefits of working with a classmate is that you could go to them for help when you're stuck, or confused.  Also, you could see their opinions and questions, and gain ideas from them.  For example, I didn't know what to choose as my question, but looking at my partner's passages and questions, I formed one in my mind quite easily.


2. Challenges and obstacles which you overcame (tried to overcome):
     One challenge I faced was when one of my partners couldn't get onto their account, therefore not being able to get onto our literature circle.  I didn't know this until the day before it was due, and was stressing about how I thought he wasn't doing any work.  I overcame this by working on the literature circle at school, and finding out my partner had done the work but not on the actual literature circle.  So they just moved their work onto it and everything was fine.


3. New understandings you gained about the novel:
     Using my partners' questions, I could understand the novel better by seeing it through their perspective.  Their connections and questions injected new thoughts about Charlotte into my brain, about how she was similar to them, and us.  I also learned that Charlotte was going through more changes than I thought she was through the book; not just by becoming braver and having an experience on a ship.  She's changing from a girl to a woman.

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, Lit. Circle #1

1. How my group discussion helped out understanding of the novel:

My group discussion helped me understand this novel better by voicing their opinions about the passages they chose, and explaining why they chose it. Seeing the book from their perspective really helped me understand it better, because sometimes they noticed certain things I didn't.

2. Connections we made during our discussion:

During our discussion, some of our predictions were based on connections to other books. We predicted Captain Jaggery wasn't such a good person, because of our experience with other books. Usually when a mysterious character is kind to the main character, they have a dark secret and is trying to get closer to them without revealing that secret.

3. Predictions:

Our group made some predictions about many characters in the book, especially Captain Jaggery. He is a very mysterious person, and although he seems nice, it may be an act to get Charlotte to trust him. Zachariah, her first friend, has some strange things to say about him, too. We also predict Charlotte will get executed at the end of the book for murdering someone.