Literature Circles

C. Walters

What is a Lit. Circle?

Students meet in small groups to read and respond to self-selected books.

Daniels, 2002

Purpose

Read and discuss something that interests them and is manageable in a supportive community of learners.

View themselves as readers Opportunities to read high-quality books

they may not have read on their own Take responsibility for completing

assignments and self-assess learning and work habits

4 Components of Lit. Circles

Reading-After book talks, students sign up for book they want to read and form lit. circles. Set up schedule with group and then read 1st part to be ready to participate in discussion.

Responding-Students meet to discuss book. Students often assume roles (see next slide) to prepare for and guide discussion.

Creating Projects-After finishing the book, projects are presented to groups.

Sharing-Each group shares with the class. They can do a book talk, share projects… but never tell the ending. Goal- create interest in reading the book!

Additional Roles:

1. Discussion Leader: Keeps group focused on the big ideas of the story.

2. Harmonizer: helps everyone stay on task and show respect for classmates.

3. Wordsmith: identifies important words in the story and checks the meaning of words in a dictionary.

4. Connector: connects events in the story with real life experiences.

5. Illustrator: draws pictures to help classmates visualize events in the story.

More Roles

1. Director: guides group’s discussion and keeps the group on task.

2. Passage Master: shares several memorable quotes with the group and explains why they were chosen.

3. Word wizard: identifies 4-6 important, unfamiliar words, checks their meaning in a dictionary, and shares the information with group members.

4. Connector: makes meaningful text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections.

5. Summarizer: prepares a brief summary of the reading to convey the big ideas to share with group.

6. Artist: draws a picture or diagram related to the book. The group talks about it before the artist explains it.

Guidelines:

~Students are linked by their book choice.

~Groups meet at scheduled and regular times.

~Meetings are to be open, natural conversations about the books.

~Any evaluation is by teacher observation and student self-evaluation.

~Discussions include characters and events, personal experiences and observations…

Teacher’s Role:

Leader: opens discussion, establishes expectations, teaches routines, and guides discussions as necessary.

Facilitator: sets the scene and invites discussion, withdraws but stays close by, steers by asking critical questions, intervenes as necessary (focus, clarify, involve everyone) and establishes beginning and ending points.

Participant: acts as a member, “lifts” discussion, models verbal and nonverbal behaviors, and models “text talk”.

Observer: withdraws but stays nearby, listens but does not participate, leans in with comment or question, and takes notes for future mini-lessons.

Evaluator: evaluates quality of discussion & student’s comments, compares learning to curriculum goals, provides feedback to groups, prompts self-evaluations and gathers info. for future teaching.

Mini-lessons

Goal: explicitly teach how to demonstrate understanding in lit. circle discussions but also provide strategies to use while reading independently, in guided reading groups or writing about reading (reflecting).

Consider using a mini-lesson at the beginning of each reading workshop.

Cover: routines of the workshop, strategies and skills, literary elements and content of student talk.

Use several “routine” and “procedure” mini-lessons at the beginning of the year.