Wednesday, October 17, 2012

The One and Only Ivan: Conversations Around Big Questions

We are almost finished with the book The One and Only Ivan. As we get to the end, we are collecting questions that we think are big enough, that we will still be thinking about them once the book is over.  This is a list of questions we came up with today:

Why does Ivan say, "It's not as easy as it looks."
Why do Ivan and his friends think some humans are nice and some are not?
Why does Ivan change saying he is in a domain to saying he is in a cage?
Why did Ivan decide to keep his promise to Stella when it is really hard?
Why doesn't Ivan live in a jungle?
Why does Julie come to visit Ivan?
Why did they chain Ruby's feet in the circus?
Why do humans upset Bob (but Julia doesn't)?
Why does Ruby talk so much?
What do words have to do with the book?
How long was Ivan in the jungle?
Is Mack nice or not nice?
Does Ivan want to go back to the jungle?

After we created the list, we got into groups and had conversations around one question. The question we talked about was the last one, "Does Ivan want to go back to the jungle?"  We tried to stick with one question to build our thinking. Then we had a whole class conversation about the question.  After we shared and built our thinking, we each thought about the question again. Here are some of the things we said about the question:

Does Ivan want to go back to the jungle?


I think he doesn’t care because Ivan made a promise to Stella that he would take care of Ruby and take her to a safe place.  So if Ruby’s safe, that’s all he cares about.

I don’t think he wants to go back to the jungle because it would bring back bad memories.

He is just trying to do his best and he wants to stay because he’s with his family and he wants to think of the good things.

I think he might want to go to the zoo so he could be with Ruby and Bob. In the jungle he might get hurt and he knows that.

I think Ivan wants to go to the zoo because he can have more space than just a cage.

I think Ivan doesn’t want to go because he can see Ruby and Bob and he is not used to getting his own food.

I think he wants to go to the jungle because he made a promise to Stella to keep Ruby safe and now he’s calling his domain a cage because of Stella. She made him change his mind. Now he is seeing Mack with the claw thing, training and all that stuff. Now he doesn’t like it there.

He wants to go to a jungle because he wants to be free.

He wants to go to the zoo so he knows that he is not the only gorilla left of his kind.

I think it’s half and half because he doesn’t want to go to the jungle because all of his friends are at the mall. He would want to go because he’s free in a bigger space instead of caged up.

I think he wants to go to the zoo because he wants to stay with Ruby because he promised Stella he would protect Ruby and he doesn’t want to break that promise.

He wants to go to the zoo so he can be with Ruby.

He wants to go to a zoo because he wants to keep his promise to Stella.

I think he wants to go to the jungle because since Stella died, he doesn’t think he belongs there anymore.

I think he wants to go to the jungle because he’ll take Ruby with him and they’ll make friends there and protect Ruby.

I think Ivan is going to bring Ruby to the zoo and he’ll stay there with her and they’ll be treated the way they want to be.

I think he wants to go to the jungle but in some ways he doesn’t because if he goes, he will miss all of his friends.

I think Ivan wants to stay at the mall because if he goes to the jungle or the zoo, he won’t get to see his friends anymore.

He wants to stay in the cage because he’ll miss Ruby.

I think Ivan wants to go to a zoo to keep Ruby safe like he promised.

4 comments:

  1. These comments show some really good thinking. This must have been a really good discussion. That's what a powerful book can do.

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  2. Hi Fourth Graders -- This is 3-O, a third grade class at Hawken School in Lyndhurst, Ohio. We enjoy reading your blog and would like to invite you to visit ours. Maybe Mrs. Sibberson can email our teacher, Mrs. O'Neill at jonei@hawken.edu

    We just finished reading Ivan today and were inspired by your questions. Here are our responses to the question: Does Ivan want to go back to the jungle?

    I think he doesn’t want to go back to the jungle because he wouldn’t have anyone to protect and he wouldn’t have Ruby safe so he would have broken his promise with Stella for keeping Ruby safe.

    No, because he wants to make sure Ruby is always safe.

    No, because there could be some bad people there.

    No, because he wants to protect Ruby and stay with her. She wants to go to the zoo, so Ivan does too. Another reason is if he goes back to the jungle it will bring back old memories and no one would be there for him.

    I think he wants to stay because he will miss everyone at the zoo.

    No, because he said he would keep Ruby safe.

    Ivan probably would not want to go back to the jungle because it would bring bad memories.

    No, because he made a promise to Stella and because the whole thing would happen again.

    I don’t think Ivan want to go back to the jungle because he always wanted someone to protect and now he has three gorillas to protect and that’s all he cares about. I think that Ivan is just really happy because he thinks that Stella would be happy and Ruby is safe.

    No, because he has someone to protect all the time. Also, if he does he might die.

    I think he does and does not because he wants to be free but does not because there are poachers. He wants to protect someone and he does have someone to protect.

    No, because he wants to be with Ruby.

    I don’t think he does because he is safe and Ruby is safe too. In the jungle there are more risks.

    No, I think he does not want to go back to the jungle. He said he wanted to keep Ruby safe.

    I think he does not want to go back to the jungle because he sees his friends at the zoo.

    Ivan doesn’t really talk about the jungle in the story so much. I think he just doesn’t care.

    We hope to hear from you soon!

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  4. Hi I'm here Pierce just reading all our blogs, we're looking great!!!!!!!!!!

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