What Are Literature Circles?
What Are Literature Circles? In literature circles, small groups of students gather together to discuss a piece of literature in depth. The discussion is guided by your response to what you have read. You may talk about events and characters in the book, the author's craft, or personal experiences related to the story. Literature circles provide a way for you to engage in critical thinking and reflection as you read, discuss, and respond to books. Collaboration is at the heart of this approach. You reshape and add onto your understanding as you construct meaning with other readers. Finally, literature circles guide you to deeper understanding of what you read through structured discussion and extended written and artistic response.
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Perhaps the best way to understand literature circles is tell you what they are not:
Literature Circles Are:
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Literature Circles Are Not:
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Literature Circle Roles
In your literature circle, assign roles for each reading assignment. The roles marked with an asterisk (Questioner/Discussion Director and Researcher) must be filled for each reading assignment. Other roles may be used at the discretion of the group members. Students may take on a role more than once depending on their talents and interests.
Literature Circle Meetings
Literature Circles will meet roughly once a week for six weeks. Each group member will have read the assigned pages independently and will have prepared an individual Role Sheet for each Literature Circle meeting. Role Sheets are due by the beginning of class on the day of the Literature Circle meeting.
During the Literature Circle meeting, students will discuss the assigned pages of the text and share the material related to their individual roles.
Expected Behaviors
I expect to see the following behaviors as I observe Literature Circles at work:
During the Literature Circle meeting, students will discuss the assigned pages of the text and share the material related to their individual roles.
Expected Behaviors
I expect to see the following behaviors as I observe Literature Circles at work:
- all members working on task and fulfilling their roles.
- all members possessing the necessary, completed materials
- all members getting a chance to share their ideas and participate in a meaningful discussion focused on the assigned reading.
- group members using an appropriate, non-disruptive volume when speaking in their group.
Evaluation/Positive Reward Interdependence
Individual Role Sheets will be evaluated in this manner:
Requirements:
- followed directions, included all elements of the task
- completed task thoroughly and thoughtfully, reflecting an understanding of the assigned reading
- written work is free of surface error
Evaluation:
- 25 points
- scored with rubric attached to Haiku dropbox
Bonus Points ( Positive Reward Interdependence):
- Group members will each bonus points on the basis of the lowest individual score of their Literature Circle. Bonus points will be awarded all members of the group.
90-94% = 1 point; 95-99% = 2 points; 100% = 3 points
Culminating Assessments:
Content:
- Culminating assessment will vary in form, but address the entire text
Evaluation:
- 100 points
- scored with rubric designed for the evaluation
Bonus Points (Positive Reward Interdependence):
- Group members will earn bonus points based on all Literature Circle members achieving a pre-set criterion of excellence on the culminating assessment. Bonus points will be awarded to all members of the group. 87-89% = 1 point; 90-94% = 3 points; 95-100% = 5 points
- Class members will earn bonus points if all members of the class achieve a pre-set criterion of excellence on the culminating assessment. 90-92% = 3 pints; 93-96% = 5 points; 97-100% = 7 points.
Weekly Responsibility |
Tracking Chart
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Literature Circle Roles
Roles marked with asterisk must be filled for each meeting.
*Questioner/Discussion Director:
Your job is to develop a list of questions that your group might want to discuss about this part of the book. Don’t worry about the small details; your task is to help people talk over the big ideas in the reading and share their reactions. Usually the best discussion questions come from your own thoughts, feelings, and concerns as you read.
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*Researcher:
Your job is to dig up some background information on any relevant topic related to your book.
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Summarizer:
Your job is to prepare a brief summary of today’s reading. Your group discussion will start with your 1-2 minute statement that covers the key points, main highlights, and general idea of today’s reading assignment.
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Connector:
Your job is to find connections between the book and you, between the book and the wider world, and between the book and other texts.
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Illustrator:
Good readers make pictures in their minds as they read. This is a chance to share some of your own images and visions. Draw some kind of picture related to the reading you have just done. It can be a sketch, cartoon, diagram, flowchart, or stick-figure scene. You can draw a picture of something that happened in your book, or something that the reading reminded you of, or a picture that conveys any idea or feeling you got from the reading. Any kind of drawing or graphic is okay – you can even label things with words if that helps.
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Travel Tracer:
When you are reading a book in which characters move around often and the scene changes frequently, it is important for everyone in your group to know where things are happening and how the setting may have changed. That’s your job: carefully track where the action takes place during today’s reading. Describe each setting in detail, either in words or with an action map or diagram. Always give the page locations where the scene is described.
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Vocabulary Enricher/Word Wizard:
The words a writer chooses are an important ingredient of the author’s craft. Your job is to be on the lookout for a few words that have special meaning in today’s reading selection.
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Literary Luminary:
Your job is to locate a few special sections or quotations in the text for your group to talk over. The idea is to help people go back to some especially interesting, powerful, funny, puzzling, or important sections of the reading and think about them more carefully. Also look for literary devices and make connections to the six elements of fiction. As you decide which passages or paragraphs are worth going back to, make a note why you picked each one and consider some plans for how they should be shared. You can read passages aloud yourself, ask someone else to read them, or have people read them silently and then discuss. Remember, the purpose is to suggest material for discussion.
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