Literature Circles for Informational Text

1. Literature Circles for Informational Text • The pen is the tongue of the mind.
Miguel de Cervante • How do I know what I think until I see what I say? 
E. M. Forster

2. What’s new? Literature Circles for Informational Text! • When you think about literature circles, what words / phrases come to mind? • Turn and talk… • Share!

3. What’s New with Literature Circles? • Harvey Daniels, 2008, 2011 • De-emphasis on role sheets. Instead, capturing kids’ responses using post-it notes, • text annotation, bookmarks, journals. • 2. More use of drawn or graphic responses to text. • 3. More explicit teaching of social skills (Minilessons for Literature Circles, Daniels and Steineke, 2004). • 4. Not just novels. More use of short text – stories, poems, articles, charts, graphs, cartoons. • 5. More nonfiction text, from articles through adult trade books. • 6. Reaching out across the curriculum: book clubs in science, social studies, etc. • 7. Sparking or supplementing out-loud discussion with written conversations. • 8. Multi-text Literature Circles (jig-sawed text sets, theme sets (Richison et al, 2004), multi-genre inquiries). • 9. New forms of assessment. Fewer reports and book talks. More performances (reader’s theater, tableaux, found poetry, song lyrics, etc). • 10. Moving from books to topics. From Literature Circles to broader Inquiry Groups (see Stephanie Harvey’s Nonfiction Matters (Stenhouse, 2000) and Kids Want to Know: From Literature Circles to Inquiry Groups by Stephanie Harvey and Harvey Daniels (Heinemann, 2008). Also, taken from Texts and Lessons for Content-Area Reading, Harvey Daniels and Nancy Steinke, (Heinemann, 2011) • Smoky Daniels’ web site – research about non-fiction literature circles: • http://www.harveydaniels.com/

4. Nonfiction “Literature Circle” • Groups of Four or five (three today) • Have lined paper or a personal learning journal and a writing implement available.

5. Talk briefly about “Ancient Egypt” What do you know?

6. Reading: Each person in your group is reading something different, but related to the topic of Egypt. • Silently read your article, and identify the main idea of the article. • And…even more important: As you read,

7. Mark words, lines, or sections of the text that “stand out” for you (you may use the codes below). • As you read, think about Text-to-text (t/t), text-to-self (t/s), and text to the world (t/w)connections. • ? – I need clarification; • ! – This is new or surprising learning; • * -This is something important, key, vital, memorable, or powerful. • OR - Use any symbols meaningful to you. • Also…

8. When you’ve finished reading: While waiting for further instructions, you may Read the article again (or skim another article). Clarify your thinking about what you’ve read. OR Sketch a picture of your reading (drawing, graph, flow chart, anything visually representational). Please don’t talk. You will have the opportunity to do so eventually.

9. Mark words, lines, or sections of the text that “stand out” for you (you may use the codes below). • As you read, think about Text-to-text (t/t), text-to-self (t/s), and text to the world (t/w)connections. • ? – I need clarification; • ! – This is new or surprising learning; • * -This is something important, key, vital, memorable, or powerful. • Use any symbols meaningful to you.

10. Write-Around This is a written conversation. There are some rules: Use decent handwriting, so others can read your ideas. Use all the time you get for writing. Don’t put down your pen until time is up – 3 minutes for the first round. Don’t talk, even when you pass your notes to one another. And…what do you write about?

11. Write for three full minutes about your Reactions, Connections, and Questions: • What were your thoughts and responses to this article? • Did you learn something? What was new to you? • Did it remind you of past experiences, people, or events in your classroom/your education? • Did it make you think of anything happening in the news, or in other materials you have read? • What questions surfaced as you read? I’ll stop you when time is up.

12. Next step Pass your writing notebook/paper to the right in your group. Read the work of your neighbor(s), then respond to the ideas in writing. Do their ideas spark a question? Can you make a connection to what they said? You’ll have 4(5)(6) minutes to do this. I’ll stop you when time is up.

13. Return to the original owner of the first writing and let’s talk a little: • Thank you for remaining silent for this way of working together • Read the entire round of responses and investigate the conversation you started! • When you and your group have all finished reading your own round of conversation, go ahead and have a verbal conversation about the topic. Be ready to share as a whole group about the content and the process.

15. Taking it Forward • What is a benefit of using Literature Circles and Write-Around for informational content dissemination? • What worked and/or what made it a challenge for you? • How could it be better the next time?

16. Bibliography • Buehl, Doug. Classroom Strategies for Interactive Learning. Third ed. Newark: International Reading Association, 2009. Print. • Daniels, Harvey, Steven Zemelman, and Nancy Steineke. Content-Area Writing. Portsmouth: Heineman, 2007. Print. • Daniels, Harvey. "Literature Circles Using Informational T." Michigan Reading Association. Detroit. Mar. 2008. Lecture. • Daniels, Harvey, and Nancy Steineke. Texts and Lessons for Content-Area Reading. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2011. Print. • Marzano, Robert J., Debra J. Pickering, and Jane E. Pollock. Classroom Instruction That Works. Alexandria: ASCD, 2001. Print. • Sousa, David A. How the Brain Learns. Second ed. Thousand Oaks: Corwin Press, Inc., 2001. Print.