Kim Kolb

Personal Reflection
November 6, 2014

Literature Circle Reflection

For our Literature Circle, my group read the book Number the Stars by Lois Lowry. I
thought it was a fantastic book that gave me several ideas of how to incorporate the book and
literature circles in my classroom. My group members were easy to work with which made the
experience that more enjoyable and positive.
Through my experience with Literature Circles I was able to gain a good understanding
of how effective literature circles work as well as how things could potentially go wrong. My
group was able to run smoothly because each group member participated in every discussion.
Each group member is given a role, rotating through group roles during the meetings, and if a
group member is absent during each meeting or discussion it hinders the discussion. A benefit
from literature circles is students are able to discuss their thoughts on the chapter(s) and while
they listen to what other group members have to say it gives each other a different way to look at
the text as well as discuss important points from the chapter more in depth.
From a teacher's perspective, I have thought of a variety of ways that I could incorporate
Number the Stars in a lesson. All of the ideas depend on grade level, but I particularly think this
book and topic would be best suited for a 5th grade classroom. Some of the activities that I have
considered using are: locating Denmark, Sweden and Germany on a map, color coding a map
with countries that were in support of Nazis and those fighting against the Nazis, have students
write an essay putting themselves in either a character's shoes, sequence the main ideas of the
story and compare and contrast Annemarie with another character in the story. These activities
would benefit the student's during or right after reading the book. This would also be a book that
could be used as an anticipatory set to introduce WWII and the Holocaust at the appropriate
grade level.

Kim Kolb
Personal Reflection
November 6, 2014

Overall, I felt that my Literature Circle was beneficial as a prospective teacher and
provided me with another activity to incorporate in my classroom. A few ways I found this
experience beneficial was knowing how to have literature circles run smoothly and it is a way to
have the students keep each other accountable. I think literature circles can be incorporated in a
variety of different subject areas and it provides many different activities a teacher can
incorporate.