We are close to finishing up our literature study of Karen Hesse's novel The Music of Dolphins. Throughout this book we've looked closely at the differences between the characters as well as how they have changed throughout the story. This allowed us to think about the terms: protagonist and antagonist. At first many of us thought that the antagonist had to be bad or evil in some way. However, we found that antagonists don't have to be ornery at all. They just have to work in opposition to the protagonist.
The Music of Dolphins really demonstrates this point well. Mila, the young girl who was taken from her dolphin family in the sea, wants to leave this human world and return to what she knows and loves. However, Dr. Beck wants to study her to learn how dolphins talk. Dr. Beck is very professional, and perhaps a bit cold, but not bad in any real sense of the word.
The kids are now moving out into book clubs. Today they browsed a collection of nine books and chose the one that they were interested in reading and discussing with a small group of classmates. As they read their books they'll take what they learned about characters and protagonists/antagonists and use this to fuel their book club discussions. It should be fun.
Here are the books they selected...
Shiloh - Atira, Jillian, Daniel, and Mrs. Mayer
The Chocolate Touch - Harlie, Roman, Reese, Colby, and Jack
The Twits - Kayla, Calin, and Joseph
Flush - Jenna, Skyler, Kirby, and Derah
Sheep - Brandon, Hannah, Maxwell, and Patton
Chocolate Fever - Madison and Rose
The kids worked today to decide as a group what pages they wanted to read each day. They will begin reading on Tuesday and just about all of the reading will take place IN school. They should continue reading their own books at home each night.
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