Literature Circles

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Literature Circles

• Ready, Set, COMPREHEND!

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Rationale for Literature Circles

• Promote a love for literature and positive
  attitudes toward reading
• Reflect a constructivist, child-centered model of
  literacy
• Encourage extensive and intensive reading
• Invite natural discussions that lead to student
  inquiry and critical thinking

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Rationale for Literature Circles

• Support diverse response to texts
• Foster interaction and collaboration
• Provide choice and encourage responsibility
• Expose children to literature from multiple
  perspectives
• Nurture reflection and self-evaluation

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Strategic Reading

• Many times, we dont teach comprehension. We
  merely measure it
• And we measure at the lowest levels of thinking.

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Eleven Key Ingredients

• Students choose their own reading materials.
• Small, temporary groups are formed based on book
  choice.
• Different groups read different books.
• Groups meet on a regular, predictable schedule to
  discuss their reading.

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• 5. Kids use written or drawn notes to guide both
  their reading and discussion.
• 6. Discussion topics come from the students.
• 7. Group meetings aim to be open, natural
  conversations about books, so personal
  connections, digressions, and open-ended
  questions are welcome.

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• The teacher serves as a facilitator, not a group
  member or instructor.
• 9. Evaluation is by teacher observation and
  student self-evaluation.
• 10. A spirit of playfulness and fun pervades the
  room.
• 11. When books are finished, readers share with
  their classmates, and then new groups form around
  new reading choices.

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Students Choose Their Own Reading Materials

• Have text sets.
• Do book talks.
• Use ballots for book selection.
• Allow friends to choose the same group as long as
  the groups function well.
• Dont ability group. Make accommodations for
  at-risk kids.

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Text Sets?

• 4-6 copies of the same title, or
• The same topic, or
• The same genre, or
• The same author.

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Holding their Thinking

• Open-ended Questions and Role Sheets (at first)
• Journals
• Dual Log Entries
• Leaving Tracks (Making thinking visible)
• Post It Notes
• Bookmarks
• Highlighters
• Drawing

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Temporary Roles To Assume

• Connector
• Questioner
• Literary Luminary
• Discussion Director
• Illustrator
• Word Wizard
• Format Finder

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Leaving Tracks/Making Thinking Visible

• Confirms what you thought
• X Contradicts what you thought
• ? Raises a question
• ?? Confuses you
• ! Seems important
• Is new or interesting
• If a word gets repeated, seems important, is
  unknown Box it word

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Possible Journal Prompts and Thinking Options

• I think
• I feel
• I wonder
• I wish
• If I were
• That reminds me of

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Possible Journal Prompts and Thinking Options

• I noticed
• This is important because
• I understand
• I am confused because
• I will help myself by
• The picture in my head looks like
• I think this means

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Which Came First? The Strategy or the Skill?
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A Strategy is

• Conscious use
• How to
• Transferable to other contexts and texts

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A Skill is

• Unconscious use
• Obtained when a strategy becomes automatic

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A Skill is a Strategy on Auto-Pilot
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A Strategy is

• An intentional plan that readers use to help
  themselves make sense of their reading.
  Strategies are flexible and can be adapted to
  meet the demands of the reading task. Good
  readers use lots of strategies to help themselves
  make sense of text.
• -Chris Tovani

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Comprehension Strategies Applied

• Activating prior knowledge
• Making connections
• Self-questioning the text to clarify
• Drawing inferences
• Determining importance in text to separate
  details from main ideas
• Employing fix-up strategies to repair confusion
• Using sensory images to enhance comprehension and
  visualize meaning
• Synthesizing and extending thinking

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Abilities Students Demonstrate During Literature
Circles

• Articulate confusion and formulate questions
• Identify and use information about literary
  elements such as characters, plot, setting
• Identify and use information about literary
  techniques such as metaphor, symbolism, and
  foreshadowing

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Abilities Students Demonstrate During Literature
Circles

• Use strategies to maintain comprehension and
  increase engagement such as inferring,
  predicting, questioning, theorizing, and
  evaluating
• Interpret the text by using evidence from the
  text
• Interpret the text by applying their own
  experiences
• Find the central meaning or theme of the text, as
  well as alternative or sub-themes
• Evaluate the text based on their own experiences
  and imagination

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How to Tell That Students Are Engaged in
Meaningful Response

• They ask questions of each other especially
  Why?
• They support their viewpoint with evidence from
  the text.
• They talk about the authors works.
• They relate an incident from the story to their
  lives.
• They incorporate language from the story.
• They connect a character or event in one story
  with similar features in other stories.
• They revisit and rethink incidents.

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Some Problems that Might Arise

• Off task
• Shallow discussions
• Mechanical
• Flagging
• Asymmetrical

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Possible Causes

• Poor book choice
• Failure to do the reading/prepare notes
• Regular reading residue
• Incomplete training
• Role sheet overdose
• Skillification
• Assessment intrusion
• Personal/cultural problems

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Text Becomes Inaccessible When Students---

• Dont have the comprehension strategies necessary
  to unlock meaning.
• Dont have sufficient background knowledge.
• Dont recognize organizational patterns because
  they cant find whats important.
• Lack purpose.

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Writing, Group Dynamics, and Strategic Reading
All Wrapped Up in One

• What matters in a literature circle is not that
  everyone agrees. What matters is that they have
  and support their opinions, treat each other with
  respect, and apply strategies that good readers
  use. Its a process that values thinking at
  higher levels.

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You can never hit someone on the playground that
youve been in lit circles with. --A student

• Creating meaning together will force total
  strangers to connect. We will reveal strengths,
  expose our weaknesses, and grow stronger as we
  build a community of readers.
• --Cris Tovani

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Recent Research Indicates Growth in The Following

• Reading comprehension
• Content area knowledge
• Achievement in high poverty groups, resistant
  learners, and ELL
• Motivation

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Works Cited

• Daniels, Harvey. Literature Circles Voice and
  Choice in Book clubs and Reading Groups, Second
  Edition. (Stenhouse, 2002)
• Harvey, Stephanie and Anne Goudvis. Strategies
  that Work. (Stenhouse, 1999.
• Hill, Bonnie Campbell, Nancy Johnson, and
  Katherine Schlick Noe. Literature Circles and
  Response. (Christopher Gordon, 1995)
• Tovani, Cris. I Read it But I Dont Get It.
  (Stenhouse, 2000)