Book Talk

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Book Talk

• Using the Collaboratory Forums for Student
  Discussions about Independent Reading

Quest Academy Palatine, IL
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Independent Reading

• At the beginning of the month, students choose a
  book from the Independent Reading List (in the
  Internet Book Clubs on the Collaboratory)
• They must choose from a different category each
  month
• They also must decide whether to do a Reading
  Journal or one of nine alternative Independent
  Reading Projects
• These are due on the first Wednesday of the
  following month
• This cycle is repeated each month of the school
  year

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How the Book Talks Work

• Students choose a book from the Independent
  Reading List to read together for the month
• Students ask a teacher to set up a Book Talk
• Students post at least five meaningful entries
  over the course of the month
• Teachers post feedback and suggestions and
  evaluate the forum at the end of the month

If students do not post in the first half of the
month, the forum is locked and students must
write traditional journal entries for the month.
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Something Wicked This Way ComesRay Bradbury
A group of seventh grade girls decided to read
this novel in November. At the end of the month,
they were still so engrossed, the book talk was
extended through December. As the girls
exchanged their reflections, insights, and
analyses on the novel, their teachers gave them
feedback and made suggestions for further
interpretation and discussion.
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Date Posted Oct/06/2003 640 PM I just read the
first chapter and it sounds really cool!! I think
that we should all read the book by chapters,
like 1-2 chapters per night, or more if there
really short. I think that Will H. and Jim N. are
different, just like Amy said. Jim seems more
mysterious and curious and he seems to think
things like lightening striking his house are
fascinating. I also think that that plays off of
him being born on Halloween. Will H. does seem
more caring, friendly and outgoing, i.e. when the
salesman asks for the boys names Will says his
quickly and Jim takes his time.
------------------------------------------ Lina
Date Posted Oct/07/2003 845 AM I read the
first three chapters and they are very cool!!! I
am kinda confused about whose dad is who. . . it
seems like Jim's dad should be more like Will's
dad because they are both intellectuals and very
interested in reading. Maybe something happened
with the two dads??? I don't know, what do you
people think? -------------------------Kayla
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Date Posted Oct/07/2003 856 AM Excellent
start, girls. I love seeing the comparisons. I
want you to think about something. What did you
think of the lightning rod salesman? Will this
character be important in the remainder of the
book? Think of some of the symbolism of a
lightning rod. Keep it up. ----------------------
-- Mr. Shilhanek
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Date Posted Oct/07/2003 631 PM I think that
even though Jim and Will are best friends, they
are very different. Jim is more reckless, curious
and mischievous. With the lightening rod, he
didn't want to put it up because he wanted to see
what would happen. He enjoys the thrill of
danger, like Tom Sawyer, even though he does not
do some of the things he would've because he has
Will there to talk him out of it. Jim is educated
(he recognizes the Egyptian and Phoenician
writing) even though he does not act like it
sometimes. Will likes to be safe and sometimes
doesn't want to do the things Jim does because he
is worried about the consequences. Also, he
wanted to put the lightening rod up right away
because he didn't want anything bad to happen.
Will is also smart, because he reads longer
books, and his father is a librarian. The
lightening rod salesmen seems paranormal, because
he knows when a bad storm is coming and has
lightening rods that, as he says, can hear, feel,
know, and soft-talk to storms, and will absorb
the shock from lightening better than any other
kind of lightening rod. But, is he also caring?
He gives a rod to Will and Jim even though they
have no money to pay for it. I think that the
salesman's arrival foreshadows other strange
occurrences. --------------------------Christi
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Date Posted Oct/08/2003 439 PM Will seems very
misplaced in his family. Like he does not belong.
His family just brushes him off and pays little
attention to him. His is a loner, wanting peace
and quiet. Will is afraid to talk to his dad, so
he just listens to him speak. That would be awful
to not be able to talk to my parents. I would
probably burst because I would be holding things
inside for so long. I think Will's dad is ashamed
of being a janitor and puts all his efforts into
it so that he doesn't have to face his wife or
Will. It is weird how he burns the poster about
the carnival. I also sensed at the beginning of
the book that he felt inferior to Jim's dad
because he was not as smart or interesting to
talk to. Cont.
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The writer talks about how Jim almost died when
he was three. This made him a different person
because he grew more serious and secluded as the
years went on. This might also be the reason why
he takes more risks. After being close to death
he wants to live life to the fullest. The writer
also talks about how Jim looks at everything and
cannot look away, making him seem older and worn
out. Will, on the other hand, prefers to look
beyond or around, therefore only taking in six
years of staring. I would rather live Jim's life
because then I could take in everything and not
miss a bit. Jim's mom mentions something about
having three children and then loosing all but
one. Also, Jim mentions that his mom had been
bruised along time ago and that the bruises never
went away. There is something in her past that is
haunting her that makes her very protective of
Jim. Jim says that he will never get hurt. He has
this childlike stubbornness to him that makes him
think that just because he says so nothing can
ever hurt him. The carnival coming to town has a
big effect on all of the characters. They all
find it very strange that it should be coming so
late in the year. The mysterious figure in the
ice really intrigues me. The lightening rod
salesman, Jim, Will, Charles, and Will's dad are
all very drawn to THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WOMAN IN THE
WORLD. It should be interesting to see how it all
plays out. -------------------------Kayla
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Date Posted Oct/14/2003 304 PM Wow!! The plot
just picked up a lot in the last ten chapters I
read!!! The imagery used in these chapter helped
me paint a very detailed picture in my mind of
the carnival. Charles Halloway is very
interesting with his point about how three AM is
when people are closes to death. That kind of
creeped me out. I also thought that he was right
about the way that mother are always more
attached to their children because the carried
them around for so long. He said that women are
immortal because they have their children to go
on living after them. The children are just
reincarnates of the women he says. Men don't have
that option. Miss Foley seems like a sweet lady.
i don't quite understand what happened in the
house of mirrors that made her so frightened but
I get the feeling that someone of something was
in there other that mirrors. Her "nephew" or so
she thinks is just missing could be a possible
suspect for the events in the house of
mirrors. Mr. Coogers transformation was very
eerie. They played the funeral march backwards
because he was edging away from death. I think
that was a clever idea by the author. It seems
like Mr. Cooger has a photographic memory the way
they explain the clicking when he looks at them.
-------------------------Kayla
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