Lit Circles Rebooted - CATE Version

LIT CIRCLES Rebooted

For

The 4Câs And

Learning is an active process.

We learn by doing.

Only knowledge that is used sticks in your mind.

Dale Carnegie

Anadiplosis

Define:

QUICK:

Write an example of Anadiplosis

Anadiplosis

QUICK:

Write an example of Anadiplosis


We learn by doing.


Dale Carnegie

The SEVEN Demands of Comprehension

These kinds of activities are

not rich enough to provide the 7 skills

http://beverlyhighlights.com/2012/10/02/annotating-is-a-crime-against-nature/

The RICHNESS of Lit Circles

LIT CIRCLE PITFALLS

HOW TO NOT BREAK LIT CIRCLES

Do: Make all the kids do all the jobs, collaboratively

Do: Give work that is academic and skill based

Don’t split up the jobs

Don’t give unfocused, artsy jobs

Do: Refresh the form every 4-6 weeksDon’t keep the same form all year

Don’t make kids read the entire book before beginning any work

Do: Have kids discuss where they are “so far”

LIT CIRCLE PITFALLS

Is it academic? Is it creative?

Is it interesting? Does it make kids better readers?

Do they enjoy the process?

Put your parent hat on, if your own child brought this lit circle home…..

Heed Musashi’s words:

“The Way is in the

Training”

Or heed Gladwell:

Students will cheat if they don’t know

how to do the given task - Paraphrased

Or heed Marzano:

Great tasks in Lit Circles

Take Notes Take Notes Take Notes Take Notes

Worksheet Worksheet Worksheet Worksheet

Bookwork Bookwork Bookwork Bookwork

TEST

The Common Calendar Flow

THE SUSHI

METHOD

The Training.

Kids do not have to read an entire book to begin

Keep the training fun - use pop culture items

Practice lit circles in class BEFORE letting them go home

Lots of 5 and 10 minute segments

WHY Statements rule: They have to explain WHY

Multiple defensible answers are required

Fast Reps.Picture Storybooks.

Commercials on

32 Pages

30 Seconds

The Training.

Use this form daily.

Watch the video or read the picture

book whole class

(Full size form on the next slide) Students work in groups of four

to do ONE quadrant at a time

All the students provided detailed,

written answers

The group then shares to the class

DIVERGENT answers are highly regarded

Characterize. Characters DRIVE the story.

Description - MULTIPLE and UNIQUE qualities.

(“brown hair and a smile” will not get it done) Actions - MULTIPLE and UNIQUE actions

(“he’s nice”, “she helps people” = too generic) Dialogue - KEY things the character says + catchphrases

(“Good morning”, “hello” = not rich enough0 Interior Monologue - What the character thinks about the problem OR other

characters and their actions. (The character should think about the conflicts)

How Society sees them - The key= NOT what you THINK (Number one error? What YOU think of the character)

Comprehension suffers without knowing characters

Summarize Characterize

Conflict Wishes

Somebody

Wanted But

So Then

Char vs Char

Char vs Self

Char vs Nature

Char vs Machine

Char vs Society

Description Actions

Dialogue Interior Monologue

How Society sees them

What 3 wishes would the character make? Tell why for each

1. Why:

2. Why?

3. Why?


Conflict Wishes

Somebody

Wanted But

So Then

Char vs Char

Char vs Self

Char vs Nature

Char vs Machine

Char vs Society

Description Actions




1. Why:

2. Why?

3. Why?


Conflict Wishes

Somebody

Wanted But

So Then

Char vs Char

Char vs Self

Char vs Nature

Char vs Machine

Char vs Society

Description Actions




1. Why:

2. Why?

3. Why?

The Training. Play 30 second commercials




Download off YouTube. Optional

BUY-IN.

YOUR STUDENTS WILL ASK TO WATCH AND ANALYZE VIDEOS OVER AND

OVER

Note: This is “close watching” as opposed to “close reading” -

but the skills gained are the same

The Quadrants. Summarizing.

Summarizing made easy.

1. Somebody: Who is the main character (protagonist)

2. Wanted: What does the main character want or need?

3. But: What gets in the way of the main character?

4. So: What does the main character do about it?

5. Then: What was the resolution of the story?

Summarizing made easy.



Char vs Char - Buzz LightYear vs Emperor Zurg

Char vs Self - Is Buzz a toy? Or not?

Char vs Nature - Buzz and Woody vs Scud (Sid’s Dog)

Char vs Machine - Buzz in the garbage machine

Char vs Society - The toys blame Woody for Buzz leaving

The Quadrants. Conflict.

Have students identify types of conflict as many as possible.

Pushing the definitions and trying is more important than being exactly correct.


Great Examples!

TV Commercials. Conflict in 30 Sec.


Group Activity:

- Make a collaborative slide deck - One slide per team member - Four movie posters per slide

- One type of conflict per person - Give a why on each

Characterize. Student Made Examples



NEEDS MORE DETAILS


those were good, but they lacked WHY statements….

The bonus: Wishes


1. Why:

2. Why?

3. Why?

The wishes need to be relevant!

Divergence is encouraged

Full Bore Creativity

The bonus: Wishes


1. Why:

2. Why?

3. Why?

THE WHY STATEMENTS ARE THE KINGS OF THIS WORK -

KIDS SHOULD PROVIDE REASONING IN A SENTENCE

Full Bore Creativity

Why the change?


Find commercials on

Workflow. Getting kids working

The power of Lit Circles is kids talking about

literature, in small groups and sharing their observations

by recording them.


One

Two Three

Four

Five

Groups can all work on the same aspect and then share out to the whole group


One

Two Three

Four

Or, one person in each group can work on the same aspect and then share out to the whole group


Have strict timeframes.

Two to Five minutes.


Timeframes create intensity.

Text. Translating the skills

Have students read short passages and do the Lit Circles in class, in a controlled setting.

Building TEXT-TO-SELF Connections

Text. Translating the skillsA key thing to teach for independent reading

TEXT TO SELF CONNECTIONSWe need to get kids connecting to books, not just reading what we tell them to read.

Give 6-8 students books to skim at their desks. Have them open a random page and find something, anything they can relate to in

the passage. Connections can be Text to Self, Text to Text or Text to World.

Then, they can write down their one thing and share it with their table group. Repeat a couple times.

This activity helps build text-to-self connections.

Activity:

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

The schedule.

Thursday

Friday

10 Minutes of group time - work on Characters SO FAR

10 Minutes of group time - work on Summary SO FAR

10 Minutes of group time - work on CONFLICT SO FAR

40 Minutes of group time - Share/Compare all categories

20 Minutes of whole class share and discussion

How do I know if they are reading the book?

Bad news: They aren’t

But you can fix that with “Why” questions

and Lit Circles

Literary Devices

http://sparkcharts.sparknotes.com/sat/satcriticalreading/section4.php

Literary Devices

Literary Devices

Literary Devices

Literary Devices

Lit Log Name ___________________ Number________

Book Name__________________________________ Author________________________

Other Books by this author (series)______________________________________________

Publisher __________________________________ City___________ Copyright _________

Year ___________Number of Pages_____ Library of Congress Number_____________

Bibl iography

Literary Devices - find a quote, passage or paragraph which

i l lustrates 1 of each of the following:

Characterization- List 1 Example of each for the Protagonist(///Actions)

1Monologue___________________________________________________________________

2Description__________________________________________________________________

3Dialogue ____________________________________________________________________

4 Actions_____________________________________________________________________

Analogy - A resemblance between similar things - Kitchen=Galley, car key is like a light switch , Babe Ruth

was the Michael Jordan of baseball (metaphor does not use like or as)

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

Theme - The simplified message of the story: Star Wars- the Jedi battle the Sith, Sandlot- Boys growing up

loving baseball.

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

Stereotype - Judging things by their looks - sometimes it is true and sometimes it is wrong.

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

Foreshadowing - the author gives you hint that something good or bad is going to happen - not just repeating

something, but a hint about the action to come....

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

• Total Pages Read This Week _________________ Parent Signature _______________________

Genre of the book: Fiction Nonfiction Hist Fiction Humor Science Fiction Other ______________

Characterization- List 1 Example of each for the Antagonist

1Monologue___________________________________________________________________

2Description__________________________________________________________________

3Dialogue ____________________________________________________________________

4 Actions_____________________________________________________________________ in use since 1999

GOOGLE FORM LIT CIRCLE

tinyurl.com/CATELitCircle

http://tinyurl.com/CATELitCircle

Anadiplosis

Big Mac Same Double Double

Baseball Same Football

Lit Circle: You Build

Focus on completion, with immediate feedback (grades)

Don’t send things home.

Don’t take things home.

Clear rubrics. Focus on skills, not facts.

Don’t teach books Teach SKILLS

CHOICE is the only

THING

Book levels DO NOT MATTER

Read together Share

Report alone

THIS WILL HAPPEN

Kids will see Irony, Paradox, Poetic Justice,

Foreshadowing and more in REAL LIFE

NOT just books.

THIS PROCESS IS MORE

IMPORTANT THAN

STANDARDIZED SCORES


We learn by doing.


Dale Carnegie

LIT CIRCLES Rebooted

ForThe 4Câs And

[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Education

Lit Circles Rebooted - CATE Version