Literature Circles

Literature circles are a structured and collaborative response literature that allows a large degree of student choice and self-direction. This student centered approach to reading has met with great success in many schools around the world.

Students form small groups based on a book or theme that they have chosen and undertake a structured discussion based on their readings. This gives students a social context to the essentially solitary activity of reading. An activity such as this gives students experience in sharing opinions and conducting discussions in person and online, and helps build personal expression, critical reading skills, and interpersonal skills.

 There are as many ways to structure this activity as there are teachers undertaking it, and you will know your own students and class best, but there are some basic guidelines for using the book club functionality of Insideadog to support your own literature circles.

Forming Circles:

 The essence of literature circles is to allow a sense of ownership. Students themselves should choose their book from a range of options. Consult with your school librarian or check out insideadog for possible books to offer. Remember to include a range of themes, genres and reading levels to appeal to a broad range of readers. The only limit should be that there will need to be a large enough group choosing the same book to form a circle. Any less than four students may not produce a good discussion, and more than eight is unwieldy. If a particular book is very popular, two or more circles could both work on the same text.

Once the students have joined a circle, they will need to have a reading schedule and several discussion times set.

Reading:

 Reading is the responsibility of the students themselves. The teacher should consult with the circle to determine an appropriate pace for reading, based on the length of the book and the amount of time the literature circle will run. Agreed goals should be set for the next discussion time, probably most easily given in terms of which chapter to reach. All students should know the point they need to have read up to be the time of their next discussion.

Discussion:

Discussion within the group is the core of the Literature Circle. These discussions should happen at regular intervals, and all participants should be prepared to contribute their thought and insights on the section they have just read, and on the book as a whole up to that point.

This discussion can happen in class, with the students meeting face to face, or it can happen online through the forum of insideadog’s book clubs. Each circle should have its own book club set up by the class teacher, who then invites the students in that circle. The club will then act as an online space for discussion and sharing. If the club is the main venue for discussion, then the conversation of posts and comments does not need to take place simultaneously, students can make contributions at any time, even at home.

Roles

To structure the discussion in a literature circle, it is best at least initially to assign roles to members of the group. Roles should be exchanged after each discussion so students experience a range of tasks over the course of the literature circle. There are many variations on these roles. These are the most common ones:

• Discussion Director - asks questions and leads discussion
  This role requires the student to produce questions to prompt discussion of the themes and events in the text. These should go beyond simple recall questions, and look at character motivation, implied meaning, and deeper themes.
• Literary Luminary - finds examples of good use of language
  This reader should have quotes and examples selected where the author showed particularly effective use of language. They might be particularly effective metaphors, evocative imagery, or
• Vocabulary Extender - finds new vocabulary
  The role of this reader is to check and share definitions of any unfamiliar terms encountered in the text. In some ways the most straightforward role, it is an important one for vocabulary building.
• Connector - makes connections with other literature, authors, movies, life experiences, etc.
  This reader is charged with examining the broader context of the selection. It involves reflecting on the themes and events in the story and locating them in the wider context of the readers’ life experience and other readings.
• Summariser – summarises the events of the excerpt
  This role will also require a thorough understanding of the events and characters of the text. The deeper outcome of this role is to build experience in identifying key points of a text and effectively summarising.
• Record Keeper – makes sure all members are up to date and contributing
  This role involves coordinating the rest of the circle. They will need to make note of the activity of all of their fellow circle members, and inform the teacher of any who do not meet their commitments.

 There are other possible roles that might suit some books - or some readers -better than others:

• Illustrator - illustrates scenes, characters or ideas from the text.
• Predictor – makes predictions on what will happen next in the story based on what has been read.
• Travel Coordinator – keeps track of comings and goings of characters, possibly produces or annotates maps

Many teachers have produced handouts for students outlining the roles in a literature circle. These are some of the most useful:

Literature Circles Resources
http://abcteach.com/directory/basics/reading/literature_circles/

Literature Circles Job Sheets
http://www.scribd.com/doc/15506880/Literature-Circle-Job-Sheets

Literature Circle Worksheets
http://worksheetplace.com/index.php?function=DisplayCategory&showCategory=Y&links=2&id=51&link1=43&link2=51

As students become more experienced and comfortable with literature circles, it will be less necessary to formally assign roles, as the points that each role engages with will emerge during conversation.

Insideadog’s book clubs provide an excellent venue for either the recording of discussion that has occurred, or hosting the discussion itself. Each student should make a post to their book club, tagged with the date of discussion and their role for the week. Other students in the group can then post comments and replies on each post. Teachers may assign an expected number of comments per discussion period in addition to the role-based posts if desired.

Post-activity

As with any learning activity, students should take time to reflect on the experience afterwards. What role did they enjoy most? Did the circle help them get more out of the book than they would have individually? Were any of the roles particularly hard or easy? What improvements would they make to this activity in the future?

Assessment

By referring to the book club posts and comments, a teacher will have a good record of participation and engagement for each student in the literature circle. Informal or formal assessment of amount of contribution and depth of understanding demonstrated should then be straightforward.

Expanding literature circles

 Using insideadog’s book clubs opens up some new possibilities for literature circles. By using the online book club as a venue for discussion, discussion time can be asynchronous – students do not necessarily all have to log on at the exact same time to contribute and take part in the circle. This allows for many new approaches to the literature circle. A student who is absent may still contribute to their circle discussion. Circles can even be formed with readers from different classes, or even different schools. This is particularly valuable if a reader is very keen to study a book that no other students in their class wish to work on.

Expanded literature circles do require more work from teachers, particularly in coordinating reading and roles within the group, as well as monitoring participation. Teachers should communicate closely with any other staff or parents who will be involved. The rewards of broadening the students’ experience in this way are many. The will be exposed to other readers and their experience of books

Other references

 Litcircles.org – online resources for literature circles
http://www.litcircles.org

Curriculum Links for Literature Circles