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Literature
Circle Strategies
for High School
Classrooms
How
To Set Up Literature Circles
Best
Time of Year for Literature Circles:
Literature Circles work well ANY time of the year.
Honestly, though, I use them the last six
weeks of school. The students feel
confident of the "safety" of the
classroom environment as a place for writing and reading analysis by then.
Students and teachers are ready for a change of pace at that point in the
school year.
Offering literature circles at
this point helps me, as a professional, to "fill-in-the-blanks" for
college preparatory high school students. Because
of potential censorship issues, a lot of books are unofficially "off
limits" for use as whole class books.
Literature circles allow small groups of students to self-select books
such as Grapes of Wrath and
A Lesson before Dying, get parent
permission to read them, and then set off to explore the more contemporary or
mature books that otherwise never grace a classroom setting where a teacher is
close by to help with questions and interpretations.
Forming
Groups:
Literature Circles can be formed by students themselves agreeing upon a
book to read, but teacher-chosen groups prevent problems such as the students no
one wants in their group getting excluded, off-task behavior, and groups formed
with all high or all low ability students.
I ask students to give me the names of several students (both male and
female) in the class that they would work well with.
I look these over and form groups so that everyone has at least one
person they asked for. It takes
time, but makes for stronger groups.
Literature circles with 3-5 members work
well.
Choosing
Books:
Before announcing the groups, I give book talks to
arouse interest in the titles I've chosen.
I ask everyone to list their 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choice.
Then I announce the group members and ask them to compare their choices
with others in the group and come to an agreement.
I usually offer 2 more
choices than the number of literature circles I am planning to form.
If I am planning for 5
literature circles, I usually offer 7 books in book talks.
Offer books that have a strong plot, several characters, imagery and
figurative language, strong vocabulary words, a strong climax, and
at least one theme.
If I have a mixed group of abilities on the middle school or high school
level, I always offer at least one Young Adult fiction selection as a choice
even though my school is heavily oriented towards "classics."
The shorter length and simpler plot line helps encourage reluctant and
slower readers.
Preparing
Students for Literature Circles
Advance preparation
is crucial! Literature circles are most successful when students have been
prepared for the various roles and the meeting procedures.
Prior to the first meeting of the groups, you will want to go over:
1.
an
explanation of each role you will be using
2.
how to
write fat questions
3.
how to
choose appropriate passages
4.
summarizing
a chapter
5.
how to
write an excellent sentence for a vocabulary work
Prior to starting the novels, my classes practice with short stories or
picture books. The entire class reads the story, then they practice all of
the roles we'll be using. We
discuss various questions and passages the students find, then write about them
in the journals. It may take several short stories before the class feels
comfortable with the system.
It is beneficial to practice the skills of summarizing chapters, writing
fat (higher-order level) questions,
and choosing passages in a text BEFORE I
start a rotation of literature circles. To
practice these skills, the entire class reads the same novel.
A common reading helps the less able students hear good questions and
passages that stronger students have come up with.
In addition, the more summarizing students do, the better summarizers
they become.
Organization:
The more organization a teacher puts into the
program, the better the literature circles run. I do the following:
¨
provide a
two pocket folder with brads for each group, labeled with the title of the book
¨
provide a
sheet for role assignments, which students fill out to show the rotating roles
¨
provide a
sheet of reading assignments for particular days. I usually allow each group to decide on the number of pages to be read for
each class session, but I give the class a (tentative) date by which I want the
entire novel completed. This helps
all the groups to finish about the same time.
¨
if you
choose the vocabulary words for each segment of reading, provide a list of these
for each folder
¨
provide a
Daily Group Record Sheet to each group for self-evaluation of the roup members
¨
I
include a simple research project (usually internet-based) for each novel
¨
each
folder usually contains several writing ideas.
Literature circle members may choose from the list. Some choices will be individual; some will need the
cooperation of the entire group. These
are due the last day of the unit.
¨
you may
want to include a listing of possible journal topics or assignments to give variety to the journal writing
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