Today we started a new novel, Music of Dolphins. This piece of fiction tells the story of a young feral girl, Mila, found swimming with her dolphin family in the ocean near Cuba. Once "rescued," she is brought back to the states and placed in a university hospital ward where researchers use her to study the part that language acquisition plays in socialization. While Mila begins very eager to please she slowly becomes more and more depressed as she longs to return to the sea to her family.
We will use this book for a character study. We will begin by working to figure out who is telling this story, who the characters are, and what we learn about each of them. From there we will pay close attention to how the author reveals these characters (description, actions, dialogue) and the changes that occur within each of them over the course of the story.
As with all class novels, we share responsibility for the reading. I will read many of the chapters aloud as the kids follow along in their own books. Other chapters will be read independently in the classroom. All chapters will be discussed in partnerships, small groups, and as a whole group. We will use what we learn about characters in this book to support book club discussions in the coming weeks. These book clubs will present an opportunity for each of the kids to select a book that really appeals to them and read and discuss it with friends.
No comments:
Post a Comment