Literature Circles Workshop

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Literature Circles Workshop
Natalie Dupuis March 2008 dupuis.natalie_at_gmail.com
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What do we want our kids to know? This? This?

• Children will read classic literature and be
  able to answer comprehension questions

• Children will work towards listening to others
  and sharing freely their ideas in group settings

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Topics of Discussion

• Literature Circles Defined
• Organization how do you get started?
• Modeling daily reading
• Book Selection
• Groupings
• Timeline
• Role Sheets
• Assessment
• Questions

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Literature Circles Defined

• A Literature Circle is a student centered reading
  activity for a group of 4-6 students at any grade
  level. Each member of a temporary circle is
  assigned a role which helps guide the group in a
  discussion of the title they have selected to
  read. The group members determine what they will
  read, what topics and questions will be
  discussed, and how they will share what they
  have learned.
• LC provides an opportunity for students to
  control their own learning to share thoughts,
  concerns and their understanding of the events of
  the novel.

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What they ARE vs. ARE NOT

• Literature Circles are
• Reader response centered
• Part of a balanced literacy program
• Groups formed by book choice
• Structured for student independence,
  responsibility, and ownership
• Guided primarily by student insights and
  questions
• Flexible and fluid never look the same twice
• Intended as a context in which to apply reading
  and writing skills

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What they ARE vs. ARE NOT

• Literature Circles are not
• The entire reading curriculum
• Teacher and text centered
• Teacher assigned groups formed solely by ability
• Unstructured, uncontrolled talk time without
  accountability
• Guided primarily by teacher or curriculum based
  quesitons
• Intended as a place to do grammar skills work
• Tied to a prescriptive recipe

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Preparing for Literature Circles

• Model good discussion behaviour
• Have students brainstorm in small groups what
  they imagine good discussion to look and sound
  like
• Introduce the books
• Allow students to touch and spend time with
  selections before having them make ranked choices
• Determine how to be a group leader
• Determnie pace of reading
• Discuss and Assess

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Model good discussion behaviour have students
brainstorm

• Through your daily reading activities
• Brainstorming activity such as the one we did
  earlier to determine elements of a good discussion

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Elements of a good discussion

• Active Listening
• Active Participation (respond to ideas and share
  feelings)
• Piggybacking off others ideas
• Disagreeing constructively
• Supporting Opinions with evidence
• Encouraging others

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Discussion

• Helps promote students acceptance of others
  opinions
• Enables more students to take risks to actively
  participate
• Provides opportunities for students to make
  meaning before reading, during reading and after
  reading
• Develops critical literacy skills

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Introduce the books, browsing and selecting

• Book introduction
• Picture walk through
• You will like this book if
• Allow time to handle, see print size etc.

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• Small temporary groups are formed, based on
  book choices.

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Teach them how to be a leader

• Discuss qualities of a good leader
• Model a mini session with teacher as discussion
  director
• Rotate the role of discussion director

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What does it look like?

• Groups meet on a regular, predictable schedule
  for large blocks of time to read (or they can
  read at home), complete their role sheets and
  discuss their work.

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Encourage flow of thought

• Group meetings aim to be open, natural
  conversations about books, so personal
  connections, digressions, and open-ended
  questions are encouraged.

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• The teacher acts as a facilitator initiating
  mini-lessons where necessary.

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What does the teacher do?

• Models
• Organizes
• Informally assesses with assessment sheets in
  hand
• Moderates when necessary
• Sits with each group for a few minutes
• Mini lessons
• Jot down great comments or questions to share
  with the class afterwards
• Formal observation

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Modeling

• Extremely important
• Each task needs to be modeled in isolation
• Start with the easiest
• Artful Artist
• Word Wizard
• Super Summarizer
• Discussion Director

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Timeline

• How many sessions/classes
• How much to read each session, or each week at
  home
• Decide who does which job let students decide?
  Give the appropriate amount of jobs out at the
  start of the unit

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Role Sheets

• Learning Styles
• Foundation
• Move away from role sheets
• Creativity
• Model how to fill them in so expectations are
  known

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Assessment

• Grades/Marks on role sheets?
• Observations
• Conferences
• Portfolios
• Mini Lessons
• Self and group assessments
• Projects To do or not to do?

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Assessment contd. Sample Observation sheet
Literature Circles, Voice and Choice in Book
Clubs and Reading Groups by Harvey Daniels,
(Second Edition, 2002)
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Assessment - contd.Student Self-Assessment
(Scoring Guide)
Literature Circles, Voice and Choice in Book
Clubs and Reading Groups by Harvey Daniels,
(Second Edition, 2002)
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What supplies do I need?

• Multiples copies of the books
• Post-it notes
• Chart paper
• Self assessment forms
• Teacher assessment forms
• Copies of role sheets
• Student folders
• Journals (optional)

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Some ideas to add a little more fun

• Have each group give themselves a book club name
• Have each group perform a totally self-made skit
  of an important scene from the book
• Always display the illustrator roles
• Have students compare themselves to a character
• Do end of unit activities group collage, group
  play, group speech, sharining character
  journals, movie.
• Involve students in the assessment process
• Have fun and celebrate literature!!!

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Resources

• http//www.literaturecircles.com/
• http//www.stemnet.nf.ca/CITE/lang_lit_circles.htm
  
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literature_Circles
• http//www.litcircles.org/
• http//www.ericdigests.org/2003-3/circles.htm