GOAL:
To explore students' personal responses to the book as a whole; to analyze the author's purpose
ASSIGNED READING:
Chapter 17, Afterword
WRITING PROMPT:
Why does Annemarie want to wear Ellen's necklace until Ellen returns?
What feelings did you have as you finished the book?
What do you think was the author's purpose for writing this book?
ONLINE PROMPT:
Use the Student Comment Form to share ideas and questions with your online peers. Check previous Student Comments pages to see if there are any comments you want to respond to.
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Remind students that their personal and emotional responses to a story are very important. Tell them that a powerful story like Number the Stars is likely to create strong feelings in them as they read, and that they should record these feelings in their reading logs. Sharing these feelings with their book clubs can also be very rewarding and interesting.
Suggest that as they read Chapter 17 and the Afterword, students think about the author's purpose for writing the book.
After students have finished the book, written in their logs, and met with their book clubs, bring the class together for community share. Encourage students to share with the class their personal reactions to the story. Ask them whether talking about the story in their book clubs helped them understand and appreciate it, and why.
You might want to ask students about Ellen's necklace as a symbol. If any students wrote about why Annemarie wanted to wear the necklace until Ellen came home, ask them what special meaning the necklace had for each girl.
Return to the topic of author's purpose and ask students to share their ideas. An author usually has more than one purpose for writing a book, so you might want to create a class concept web and record all students' suggestions. Then you could have students vote on what they think was the most important purpose.
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