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because it respects the uniqueness of each individual" (Politanio, C., & Davis, A., 1994) |
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This page will provide some of the tactics and materials that I have found useful in running Literature Circles in my classroom (follow the links). Also I will connect to some resources I plan on using in the future. Before you start here is an excellent resource containing questions you should ask yourself before you start click here Another document to look at is this quick organization of "job" sheets click here |
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BOOK CHOICE and GROUPS: The way I chose to
initiate Literature circles in my classrooms was to use the
theme of Ancient Civilizations and structure the class using
rotating stations. The books I offered, through the help of
my Librarian were: "Detectives in Togas" By Henry Winterfeld "Mummies in the Morning" By Mary Pope
Osborne "Time Warp Trio" (gift set) By Jon Scieszka "Sword of Egypt" By Bert Williams Students are given some "look and see" time, and asked to use the "5 finger method" to choose a book that they would like to read and study for their Literature Circle groups. I also give them a top 3 sheet to write the top 3 books they would like to read and then I place the children based on their choices, abilities and class social dynamic. Books are signed out of class and to be read at home or during D.E.A.R. time. JOBS After reading over
(placed on overheads) and modeling all of the
"Jobs"
with the class the students receive print outs to put in
their Language Duo-Tang for reference. The students are then
given a work book We also glue in the tracking sheet to the inside cover. For Assessment and Evaluation the students are referred to the tracking sheet and asked to refer to their paragraph rubrics in their language Duo-Tangs. (note: Paragraphing is a skill the students must have in order to complete the "Job" responses). Model a meeting. Demonstrate positive feedback, politeness, and noise levels. Determine an order (I use the order on the tracking sheet) and time frame, 20-30 min. Scheduling The students MUST know when their group is meeting so that there are NO excuses come meeting time (Make sure you have a plan for unfinished work...should they participate??). There is also mention of meetings on the class calendar. To keep the students on track in their own groups I post a "job finder" at the front of the class. Students also need to know what their reading is for each meeting (page #'s etc.), providing a table to insert in their Literature Circles "work book" is also helpful. When scheduling the amount of meeting times you will have to be careful managing the amount of pages/chapters in each group so all the groups finish their books at the same time (as you go along tweak the # of pages up or down to manage time the way you see fit). Class Set Up Do you want to have multiple group meetings to happen at the same time? Do you want to sit in for all of them? What can your class handle? I set up my meetings to occur one at a time. This meant that I could sit in to track and assess, and be available to give hints or manage behaviour. The rest of the class would be in their groups located at stations that would rotate as groups finish at the Literature Circle station. To help facilitate this I also have a class map at the front that shows the locations of all the groups on a given day and what station they are to be located (using magnets and photocopied book covers). The other stations were either geared to reading and language or the general theme of Ancient Civilizations. For example: The stations rotate according to the time it takes a group to finish their Literature Circle meeting (usually 20-30 min). I usually have Literature circles on days where we have a double language period. If needed I modify the stations to handle any other language work we are doing at the time. For example if we are working on independent story writing and we need more in class work time I would cancel the all stations that day except for Station 1 "Literature Circle" and have the rest of the class in their seats working on their independent writing. Teacher Time Spent at the Literature Circles In the beginning you will need to attend the first few rotations and sit as a "facilitator" while the kids get used to the concept. As the groups get into the swing of things you will be able to spend less and less time "facilitating" and more time helping the other groups and assessing their work. I usually make a point of being at a Literature Circle meeting when a student is doing a read aloud or managing the "Questioner" "job" as they need to be witnessed to be properly assessed by the teacher. The other "jobs" can be assessed from the written/drawn work in the Literature Circle work book. You will develop a sense of which groups are ready to be independent. (Note some teachers use peer assessment/evaluation and I am not yet familiar as to how to manage that but it is something I would like to employ). WRAP IT UP My teaching partner came up with a great activity called "Literature Circle Follow Up" that covers some of the major themes or issues in many of the books. It also asks the students to review and persuade others to read the book. Here are some examples of student work on the Follow Up activity: page 1, page 2, page 3. Links: For links to other great resources and black line masters go to:
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How
can I use a Literature Circle?
to complete their jobs in. 
Laura
Candlers "Teaching Resources"
"Literature
Circles Resource Center"
