Educators’ NetworkLiterature Circles

By Sarah Pickles

March 31st 2012Lincoln Community School,

Accra, Ghana

Tuning In:What are Literature

Circles?Turn and talk to the person next to you and explain what your understanding of Literature Circles is.

What are Literature Circles?

Groups of 3 -5 students read, discuss and respond to books

Facilitate focused discussions on books

Way to become critical thinkers

Engage students in meaningful response to literature

Motivate students to read

Teacher is observer/facilitator

Why have Literature Circles?

Student centred

Foster a love of reading

Promote student independence and responsibility

Promote authentic discussions about books

Encourage students to learn from one another

Foster critical thinking

Why do Literature Circles?

Finding Out

What kind of things do you think students can discuss about books?

Turn to the person next to you and discuss your ideas

What are Literature Circles?

What do they look like?Share what makes sense

Share what doesn’t make sense

Use others’ ideas to help think about books

Ask questions

Share our stories, connections, that help us understand the characters

Discuss insights

Discuss language

Discuss writer’s craft

Making Connections

Text to text

Text to self

Text to world

Promote a deeper understanding of books

Discuss language

Learn new vocabulary in an authentic way

Identify figurative language e.g. metaphor and simile

Identify and share examples of descriptive language

Ask important questions

Teaches students to ask discussion questions rather than comprehension questions

Different perspectives on the books

Discuss characters

Discuss character traits and back up your ideas with evidence from the book

Discuss how characters change and why

Discuss what motivates characters

How does it fit in with your teaching?

Literacy program

Your students

Your style of teaching

Your classroom routines

Your teaching day

Structure and scaffolding

Through read alouds, model the questions and connections you want the students to make

Through strategy lessons teach students strategies, e.g. making personal connections to the texts, and then get students to practise doing that with shared texts or with their reading books

How do you start?

Essential Agreements

What agreements do you think you have to have to ensure smooth discussions?

Structure of Literature Circles:

Before the discussion

Students choose a book and form a group/groups are formed and books distributed

Read at home – students agree how many pages they will read before the next session

Have a job to do on the pages read/or take notes

Bring journal and book to Literature Circles

Structure of Literature Circles:

During the discussion

Discussion Director facilitates discussion

Students share and discuss their notes and their ideas

Structure of Literature Circles:

After the discussion

Students agree on pages to read for next session

Students rotate jobs

Students record pages to read and jobs in journals

Feedback and reflection session

Scaffolding

Read along and listen to me read a short text

Scaffolding

Now I will put you in groups

Reread the text and make any notes, recording any of your thoughts

Discuss in your group

Reflection

What went well?

What didn’t go so well?

Have a go

Read the short text in front of you

Each of you will be given a job

Reread the text through the lens of your job

Make notes according to the job description

Have a go!

Now you have read the text and written some notes according to your job, get into your groups and the ‘Discussion Director’ will facilitate the discussion.

Assessing Literature Circles

Time for reflection: Students

Student self reflection:

What went well?

What could be improved?

What are your group’s goals?

What are your individual goals?

Assessing Discussions: How and Why?

Anecdotal records

Rubrics

Checklists

Set goals for individuals and groups

Assessing Journals: Teacher

Share exemplary work

Post exemplary work in your classroom

Set goals

Going FurtherVisit www.disting.blogspot.com for the presentation and resources shown today

Read: Noe, Katherine L. Schlick, and Nancy J. Johnson. Getting Started with Literature Circles. Norwood, MA: Christopher-Gordon, 1999.

Read: Day, Jeni Pollack. Moving Forward with Literature Circles: How to Plan, Manage, and Evaluate Literature Circles That Deepen Understanding and Foster a Love of Reading. New York: Scholastic Professional, 2002

Visit http://www.litcircles.org/

Try out Literature Circles with your students!

Thank you for coming

to this workshop!