Maggie Wiygul ED511

Lexile Level: 880L

J.K. Rowling's series has been extremely popular with people of all ages for years because of the incredible detailed world it describes and the lovable and well developed characters. Upper elementary students are always interested in reading this book and it is a wonderful series to allow students to read independently to encourage a love of reading that will hopefully remain with them throughout their lives. The first book of her series introduces Harry Potter and describes his first year at the magical school Hogwarts. Harry is confronted with many conflicts, must make several important decisions, and learns the value of friendships. Every character J.K. Rowling introduces is strongly developed and complex which would make this book perfect to use in character analysis lessons. Students could analyze each character to identify and describe their physical and personality traits. They could use venn diagrams to compare and contrast the characters. This book would be perfect to assign to advanced readers for a literature circle. Students could read the book separately and then discuss different aspects of the book as a group.