Literature Circles

1. Literature Circles A Reading and Discussion Format

2. Literature Circles • Choose a short story to read with or to the class. Use that to model the roles that you want the students to take on during Literature Circles on a regular basis.

3. Designate a Discussion director for each literature circle – Rotate the job to different members of the group (Download the “Discussion Director” document) • Then, set questions you want students to discuss • Model adding own questions

4. Illustrator Literary Luminary Word Wizard Connector Travel Tracer (Download each role document) Artful Artist Vocabulary Enricher Investigator Summarizer Other Group RolesChoose several of the following for each discussion …

5. For each discussion, the group must choose: • 1 Discussion Director • 3 - 4 other group roles

6. Teacher’s Role • Supervise as students read and prepare roles. • Rotate through each group, taking part in 1/3 of the discussions • Meet with each book group for discussion

7. Management • Begin unit by having all students read on Day 1 • Then move into a schedule (see chart on the following slide)

9. Groups always meet in same section of the room • Groups choose silent or oral reading • Each group has a folder in which all work (individual and group) is kept • Students keep an overview of schedule in folder. • On writing day, students assess selves and group

10. Final Project for Lesson • Choose books along a particular theme in your class, and allow students to read using the Literature Circles structure • Submit outline of your lesson plan, samples of discussion questions, samples of student responses to questions, and a professional reflection (Download “Teacher Reflection” document)

11. Resource Websites • LiteratureCircles.com http://www.literaturecircles.com/ • Literature Learning Ladders http://eduscapes.com/ladders/themes/circles.htm • Abcteach http://www.abcteach.com/Reading/litcircles/litcirclestoc.htm