Who here had to write an insane amount of reflections in university? It felt like that was all I was doing… reflect on this paper… reflect on what each other said… reflect on your reflections. Enough already am I right?!

But alas… now that I am a teacher… I tend to think, “Hm. Maybe they were on to something with all these reflections.” So, I now annoy  my students with reflections.. and their first pre-reading activity with Harry Potter is a reflection on JK Rowling’s Top 10 Rules for Success.

Obviously JK Rowling is a Queen, and she needs to be treated as such. I introduce the Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone first by speaking about its author, and how she manages to capture the imagination of so many readers out there. She went from absolutely nothing, to being one of (if not THE) most well-known author of our time.

I start the pre-reading activity off by watching the video, and pausing it throughout to assess their understanding and talk about concepts.

 

 

Here is the lesson plan for the reflective writing activity. I think it is good to give them a little structure for it if they are a weaker class. Last year, I just told them to write and apply it to their own lives and it went alright as well. I guess it depends on the class right?

 

 

So there we have it. The first activity in my Harry Potter unit. Next blog I will write about how we do the sorting hat ceremony! Exciting!!