4/19 Scribe

Today I was the scribe for my group. First Andrew asked why has Katie become so lenient with the kids fighting? McKenzie answered by saying that she doesn't really care anymore and she's used to it. Then Andrew asked why did Francie take a long time to inspect her surroundings once she had read the article concerning World War 2? McKenzie responded to this by saying Francie wants to remember it forever and she wants to relive it whenever she thinks about it. The Andrew asked why did Francie insist on buying the little tree near Christmas when they couldv'e saved the money for later? McKenzie answered by saying she probably didn't know thye needed the money. We all discussed how Francie got fired from her job at the factory and we talked about how Katie chose Neeley to go to school over Francie becasue she wants him to become a doctor. We also discussed Ben and how he helps Francie plan out her life. We discussed Lee and wondered whether he really loved her or his fiance. I brought up how I think the tree represents Francie's life growing up in Brooklyn, and how it was chopped down at one point but then grew even taller. The fall of the tree represents Johnny's death and how that brought Francie down, but then the other events in her life made her stronger, like the tree growing taller. Alyssa talked about Katie and how she's becoming less and less controlling of her life and her kid's lives. We weren't all prepared today and that led to a lot of breaks in discussion.

4/7/10

This group discussion was interesting for me. We really focused a lot on talking about character developement from the beginning of the book up to where we are now. One of my questions was why does Katie not want Francie and Neeley to cry for Johnny when he died? Mckenzie answered my question by saying that Kaite wants her kids to be stronger than she is becasue Johnny's death is affecting her in a very negative way now that she's pregnant. We talked about the part in the book where Katie says that from now on she will be her kid's mother and father. I participated well to this part of the discussion by explaining to my group members why she says this. I said Katie says this because she knows that Johnny was a good father to her kids and she doesn't want them to be missing out on having only one parent. We also discussed about how the Nolans were split up into two teams before Johnny died. Katie and Neeley were together and Franice and Johnny were together. I said that I think Franice is taking his death the hardest even though she doesn't always show it. Overall, I think I participated well today and my classmates cleared up a lot of questions I had.

3/24 Scribe

Today I was the scribe for the group. Alyssa started off the discussion buy talking about chapter 23. She said it shows a lot about Johnny caring for Francie. She talked about how mature Francie is for her age. Alyssa was also confused about how in chapter 28 Francie's thinking changes in a more negative way. She thinks it is forshadowing something bad happening in the future. She also discussed about how in chapter 27 Francie shows negative attention towards Katie because she favored Neeley on Christmas.
McKenzie asked the question: Why does Katie risk Francie getting lit on fire, rather than risking her getting lice? Andrew responded to McKenzies question by saying that Katie knows that Francie is already disliked by her classmates and she thinks getting lice is going to make her hated even more. McKenzie also asked: Why is Katie so against the Democratic party? Andrew responds to this by saying that she's not so aganist the party she's just against Johnny idolizing the party so much.
I asked the question: How does Francie just get away with going to the new school so easily? Alyssa responded to my question by saying that back then they probably weren't as aware of that issue or even cared that much about it. McKenzie talked about her passage. She said that the Nolans, besides Katie, are happy where they are because they don't see how bad it really is.
I said that Johnny is better parent for Francie and Katie is a better parent for Neeley. Alyssa said that Johnny is a way more relaxed parent than Katie. We also talked about how Francie is willing to walk several blocks from her home to her school and back every day.
Andrew asked about why Johnny has the perception of believing that Tammany will do anything if you voted for him in the election race. McKenzie answered his question by saying that he only looks at positive things becasue he doesn't know about the negative stuff. I talked about how in each chapter Francie is growing up a little more. Her personality is changing and she's getting a different view on things.

3/19/10

This past group discussion was interesting in my opinion. We all had a lot of ideas and predictions about future chapters in the book. We especially had a lot of thoughts about how Francie grows up and her experience through her teenage years. Alyssa asked about chapter 11. She was confused about when Johnny was locked in his room without a drink. I wrote my passage about this particular part so I helped her understand it better. This is one of my strengths. I think I am good at answering other peoples questions becasue most of the time they don't undertsand something that I did and vice versa. We discussed certain parts of the reading such as when Francie and Neeley were born and their parent's struggles supporting them, and we also talked about Sissy. I asked why Katie allows Sissy to hang around so much if she is a bad influence on Katie's kids. My group members helped me understand that although Sissy has a repuation and is a great lover, she is also nurting and a great mother.

3/14/10

This past group discussion was short for me because I came to school late more than halfway through the period. I only got to talk about the book with my group members for five minutes. I think my strength is answering other people's questions about the book. Sometimes it is easier for me to answer their questions and for them to answer mine. In the past discussion we had, I answered one of my own questions. The question I had was about the passage I selected. As a group we started talking about the passage together and I brought up some ideas and opinions I had about it. Then I realized that I had answered my own question. The passage I chose was at the end of chapter 4.

3/9/10

During our second group discussion, I felt like I had a lot to say about the book. We all discussed our questions and passages together. I brought up a question about Francie's dad. I asked if anyone thought there was something suspicious going on with him besides the fact that he drinks. This brought up a big discussion. We all pretty much thought the same thing. We think Francie's dad is going to do something bad eventually. We also talked about Francie's character. Alyssa brought up that she is mature for her age. She seems lonely and she doesn't have many friends. I feel like there is a lot to discuss about this book because there are a lot of characters to the story. We talked about Francie's brother Neeley and how he has many friends and is the opposite of his sister. I think we used our class time wisely except in the beginning of the period. We had a hard time figuring out our reading schedule, but eventually we got it.

3/4/10-Scribe

Today was our first group meeting of literature circles. Our group was assigned to read "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn." As a group we created a schedule of the amount of the book we have to read for each group discussion. It was hard for us to do this because our book is almost 500 pages. McKenzie did a good job at dividing the amount of pages up evenly for the amount of days we have to read it. Alyssa suggested that we break up the amount by chapters because we don't like to stop reading in the middle of a page or sentence. Even though it took a while to figure out how much to read for each class, we finally were able to make the schedule by listening to all of each other's ideas.