Literature Circles & Book Speed Dating

1. Literature Circles & Book Speed Dating Intro to Lit Circles

2. What are literature circles? • Students choose their own reading materials • Small temporarygroups are formed, based upon book choice • Different groups read different books • Groups meet on a regular, predictable schedule to discuss their reading • Kids use written or drawn notes to guide both their reading and discussion • Discussion topics come from the students • Group meetings aim to be open, natural conversations about books, so personal connections, digressions, and open-ended questions are welcome • In newly-forming groups, students may play a rotating assortment of task roles • The teacher serves as a facilitator, not a group member or instructor.

3. What is speed dating? • Multiple singles meet in an organized place. • Each single man/woman spends a very short amount of time talking to another man/woman. When time is called (about 5 minutes), singles switch who they are talking to. • At the end of the event, people get the information of who they are interested in.

4. What does this have to do with literature circles? • We are going to use speed dating so that you can get acquainted with your book choices for this semester • We will follow the same process as speed dating • You will rank the books at the end in order of how interested you are in them • I will pair you up with one of your top three choices (hopefully your first)

5. First Book: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

6. Second Book: Stolen

7. Third Book: It’s Kind of a Funny Story

8. Fourth Book: An Abundance of Katherines

9. Fifth Book: The Book Thief

12. Lit Circle Discussion Examples • Clip Three: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAOd1zXlo30 • Clip Two: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IgrTtIEq8E • Clip Three: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7f9kD9kik0

13. Literature Circle Roles • The Connector • The Secretary • The Discussion Liaison • The Quote Connoisseur • The Artist • The Word Whiz

14. The Connector • This person will be responsible for making three types of connections with the text in preparation for the meeting: • Text to Text: comparing the book you are discussing to another book/story/movie • Text to World: comparing the book you are discussing to a real-world issue • Text to Self: comparing the book you are discussing to your life experiences

15. The Secretary • This person keeps track of the discussion about the book • Responsible for keeping track of how many times people participate • Responsible for recording the key points talked about during the discussion session

16. The Discussion Liaison • This person is responsible for initiating discussion • This person will come up with five INSIGHTFUL questions about the part of the book that you were assigned to read • This means questions that require more than a one-word answer! • This person is also responsible for making sure the discussion flows nicely

17. The Quote Connoisseur • This person is responsible for choosing three quotes that they found interesting while reading the required part of the text • They will explain why these quotes in particular were intriguing/ meaningful

18. The Artist • This person is (you guessed it) responsible for choosing a key scene from the section that his or her group was required to read and drawing it • They must provide a written explanation for why they chose that particular scene

19. The Word Whiz • This person is responsible for choosing five words from the required section • The person will list the word, where it is used in the text, and what it means

20. ALL Members Must Contribute to Discussion to Receive Full Credit!!!