How can words move your students?

When looking at The Book Thief and realizing the length of it, I wondered how am I going to get this done on top of everything else that is being asked of me?! So I dedicated my entire Saturday to The Book Thief, and am happy to say that I am glad I did. The story line is one that is so touching to the soul that as a reader I was filled with empathy for many of the characters. Zusak does a great job at connecting the audience to the characters, that it was never confusing and always a nice easy read. I loved the relationships that Liesel made with each character as each relationship was different, and told you more about her as a character. Liesel and her relationship to her brother (and mother), Her and Pappa, mama, Ilsa the mayors wife, Rudy - and the list goes on. All of these friendships had faith. I specifically liked the relationship of Max and her. What she did for him especially when he was sick touched my heart as a reader and allowed me to become even more interested in the story line, quickly getting through the amounts of pages. Zusak's choice to incorporate the "pages from the basement" allowed me to love Max even more than I already did. I loved the idea that everything that was happening in the plot relied on language - words. What words do to each other and how they can affect you. Liesel's reading - Han teaching her, stealing books, (with Rudy) making a connection with the mayor's wife, her reading to her elder next door neighbor, and most all her reading aloud making the sirens background and stories frontline was fascinating - to see what words can do to others.
- The story of the "Word Shaker" was shaped from Liesel's words. This story was fascinating.

Elements to Ponder on: (Random thoughts/ symbols throughout the book)
The repetition of Jesus, Mary, Joseph- The element of dreams - Language - Those who got chosen to enter war (Steiner & Hans) -Family (The immediate connection btw. Liesel & Papa) - Importance of Symbols (accordian, books, food - for Rudy) - inspection of the basement - Isolation of Max, the Chance that the Family takes- How & What effect does her brother dieing have - Since Hans was a painter, they used painting on the wall as a way to learn words- this significance- Change of characters ex: Rudy from stealing to handing out bread etc.
- The fact that it was written in 1943, yet the words on the page do not make you feel disconnected due to the time period - the themes are relatable

- I would use this book's idea of 'The Word Shaker' and 'Pages in a basement' to allow my students to create similar ones with their interpretation included or imagine how an event could have gone if it went differently. Also Role playing a scene would help portray the overarching themes to students due to this literature connecting to real life situations. This book would also be extermely appropriate to use SSR (Wilhelm's idea) creating cutouts of scenes - stealing, war, basement interpretations, or objects like the accordian, the jobs of the parents. etc

- This book could be an intimidating one due to length when attempting to introduce it in a Literature Circle. Yet, I think that once the students began getting into the key topics of the books, it would not be one that students would regret. Especially if students alternate which books they read, other students projects and discussion topics can move students to read this book as well. I liked how LC's concentrated on Student choice and allowed the students to mature through their reading based on working harder individually, due to the teacher being a facillitator. I also admire the balance of reading and writing (silent, group, guided, interactive/shared, independent) Shared leadership and responsibility should be instilled in all groups, this is where the facillitator checks in. The potential of collaborative reading/ writing/ and learning is important and makes these groups successful. I do agree that it might be hard to fit these Literature Circles into the curriculum due to the managing of LC's and other required concepts, yet the Daniels makes important points of shared time that allow you to believe as educators that these LC's could very well fit into lesson plans. Although this book did not affect me as much as YGBB did, I still think it is valuable to see these proposals and use these conversation groups to get students thinking about questioning, evaluating, and noticing elements of literature.