Exploring FirstPerson Narrative Through Online Literature Circles

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Exploring First-Person Narrative Through Online
Literature Circles

• Kate Amos
• Kimberly Yaccarino
• ECI 521

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First-Person Narrative

• The I tells the story
• Can be a major or minor character
• Always present
• Reliable vs. unreliable

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Advantages of First-Person Narrative

• Broadens students point of view
• Realistic characters
• Personal connections to characters
• Character perspectives can help shape feelings or
  values

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Michael L. Printz Award

• Literary excellence award for young adult
  literature
• Criteria (Guidelines) for Committee
• Voice Style Illustration
• Story Accuracy Design
• Setting Characters Theme

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Book Clubs the Printz Award

• Winners from Official Adult Committee vs.
  Winners from Eva Perry or Middle Creek Book Clubs
• About 90 of all winners and Honor books had
  teenage narrators or first-person narration.

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Printz Award Books

• How I Live Now- 2005 Winner
• Daisy, 15 year-old narrator
• Through Daisys evolving voice, readers see a
  teen who moves beyond self-absorption to become a
  resourceful survivor, understanding the need to
  care for others
• www.ala.org/yalsa/printz

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The Potential of Literature Circles

• Position
• Online literature circles can be used to help
  adolescents explore first person narratives and
  different perspectives from which an author can
  tell a story.

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Theories

• Social Development Theory Vygotsky
• Social interaction is crucial to the development
  of cognition
• Reader Response Theory
• Meaning lies in the transaction between reader
  and text

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The Basics

• Innovative book exploration
• In class / face-to-face
• Groups of 4 to 5 students
• Discuss responses
• Student roles

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Roles
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Are Roles Necessary?

• Some teachers find that roles take focus and
  energy away from the discussion. Nearly all of
  the teachers we know who used roles early in the
  process abandoned them after awhile.
• (Noe and Johnson, 1999)

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Alternatives to Role Sheets

• Teach strategies through focus lessons
• Students choose how they would like to respond
• What other alternatives could be used?

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Taking Literature Circles Online

• The benefits of written conversation
• Bintz and Shelton (2004)
• Written conversation used to discuss novel with
  middle school Language Arts students
• Promoted active involvement
• Exploration of different perspectives
• Used many reading process skills
• Bintz (2004) stated that written conversation as
  a highly social engagement supported the
  development of student voice, perspective, and
  responsibility.

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Applications

• Virtual dining room tables Julie Wood
• New dimension
• Sophisticated writing
• Voice
• Sense of audience
• Perspective
• Literature e-Circles / Virtual Literature Circle
• E-circle
• Comprehension questions
• Purpose develop connections

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Plan of Action

• 1 2 groups to read Saving Francesca from Eva
  Perry Library or Middle Creek HS book clubs
• Post roles for reader response online via
  QuickTopic
• Lead discussion to focus responses on personal
  connections to the book

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Questions for Discussion

• Have you observed that your students are more
  drawn to first-person narrative?
• Were you drawn to first-person narratives as an
  adolescent?
• How can online literature circles be structured
  to actively involve all students?

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Quotes to Consider

• Has anyone wondered why Harper Lee, J. D.
  Salinger and S. E. Hinton all continue to be
  enormously popular, decade after decade, even as
  their novels become dated and children become
  ever more centered on our music-video present?
• Mark Oppenheimer, NY Times Book Review, 1997
• We read to know were not alone --C. S.
  Lewis