Presenting Our Novels

The 5th and 6th graders of Mrs.Gilmartin’s D.E.B. group have just finished  participating in book clubs to study internal and external conflicts in novels.

Before we started the book clubs, we had been studying the types of internal and external conflicts. Then Mrs.Gilmartin picked some books that we could read and use to have a good discussion.

The sixteen people in this D.E.B. class were put into groups depending on what book they seemed to like best. There were four groups total. For the four groups, it has been about a three week journey reading and discussing our books each day we had D.E.B.

After reading our books, each group was asked to make a poster talking about the main type of conflict (Man vs. Man, Man vs. Nature, Man vs. Society, Man vs. Self) and also the smaller conflicts leading up to the main conflict.

We split up with two groups presenting at a time. One watched, one presented. The groups that were presenting gave a very descriptive explanation that made the audience have questions and thoughts about what was happening in their book.

When they were done presenting, the audience did a “Round Robin” Kagan exercise to tell the presenters what they really liked and what they could do to improve. This structure was very helpful because the presenters had to present two more times. It gave them a chance to figure out what they needed to do better next time they presented.

My favorite part of the whole project was that the groups that were presenting got the opportunity to receive feedback from other classmates on what they could improve before they presented again. This was important because I will be able to use the feedback from this project to help me with other projects not only in D.E.B., but in other classes as well.

By: Emily