Literature Circles-AGAIN!

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Julie of the Wolves

It was coming to the end of the day, and humanities was my very last period. I was pretty tired, but still prepared for my last period. I still had enough energy to sit through the last eighty minutes of the school day. I slumped down at a desk, and set my books down. There was a little time before class, so I just awaited the arrival of the rest of the group. I was actually quite happy to be having humanities, because of the second Literature Circles meeting! Once again, I had my completed response sheet with me, and of course, I read the assignment given. As I predicted, I loved it! With the fabulous imagery and fantastic writing, how could I not? I mean, the scenes are thoroughly described, and the use of vocabulary is of fine quality. However, just as before, there are parts within the plot that I couldn't comprehend that well. And yes, most of the misunderstood sections were basically vocabulary. Though, I still love to discuss and hear other individuals and there opinions. That way, there is conversation between us, and maybe some clarification. Anyway, my other group members finally appeared, and the discussion began!

During our discussion, we must "present" our papers to the rest of the group. We use that as our base for the exploration over the book. In other words, we use our response sheets to begin our discussions; a starting point that will lead us to connections and questions. In the content of our response sheets, we must pick three passages, and explain the importance of these passages. Everyone shares theirs, and we expand our thoughts on the quotation indicated. For example, I had multiple passages that were all based on the same reason of choice. These extracts were about the main character, Miyax/Julie, and her progress with the wolves. These passages were important because that was her task all along; to gain acceptance into the pack and live like a wolf in order to survive. I shared my passages and reasoning with the group, like we were meant to. But even though we were meant to elaborate on the passages, we didn't. Yes people said whether they agreed or not, but that didn't help because everyone agreed with my thoughts anyway. As a matter of fact, we never really discussed anyone's passage! Everyone, including me, would just remark whether or not they agreed with the person's view. The real elaborating began once we made our way to the questions segment of the sheet.

Besides significant passages, our response papers must also include the questions we have, as well as our own responses towards them. For our group, that is when we start talking and sharing ideas. From one another's questions and replies, we all build on our opinions and feelings, and make connections. For instance, someone in our group was wondering why the wolves would leave Miyax/Julie in the Winter. Everyone had the same reply; because come Winter, wolves migrate and become nomadic. Then, another individual asked why the wolves must migrate. We developed all our thoughts, and discussed for quite some time. All of us had our opinions and theories on the subject. Even so, most of our thoughts were wrapped around the same big idea. We all thought that wolves migrate during Winter because, they constantly need to find new food sources, and new land to live on. We wanted to be sure, so we double checked with our teacher, Mrs.Narsiman. Turns out, we were really quite correct! This is was in fact, my favorite part of our discussion.

All in all, the discussion went great! I forgot to mention this, but I also learned what a few words were! One of these words were ulo, which if I'm not mistaken, is a knife that women use. That is roughly what it is, but I'm still glad I know something about it, because the book has that word multiple times! It is one of the main tools Miyax/Julie uses. The discussion is really helpful in vocabulary, because you learn what some words are. Which can be helpful to your understanding of the story line. This discussion, as I've said before, went very well! Even with the little tension that occurred between two of my group members! I forgot to mention that too! Honestly, there was a tiny bit of conflict between two of my group members; but despite that, the second Literature Circles discussion went perfectly! I really did enjoy it, and I'm sure I'll enjoy the third one as well!