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Literature
Circle Strategies
for High School
Classrooms
Harvey Daniels
inspired a multitude of teachers in the early 90s with his literature circle
strategies. Click here to see all of Daniels' available books.
Over the last
11 years, I have experimented with literature circles in my middle school and
high school English classes and adapted strategies as I learned more about my
students, about teaching, and about literature circles. From 1999-2001, I
presented several regional and national workshops on literature circles. Here
is a link to the L-O-N-G handout from that workshop. It is filled with
writing ideas to use as extensions for literature circles.
Since 2002, I
have been very successfully using Jim Burke's adaptations of the literature
circle role sheets found in his book THE ENGLISH TEACHER'S COMPANION
. Burke also has an excellent and
comprehensive web site with the actual lit circle role sheets available
online. Click here
to visit it
Writing
in the Round:
Writing
Strategies for Literature Circles
Capstone Writing Project, June 2001
Mobile Bay Writing Project, May 2000
“Motion is not progress.” –Dr. Jeff Golub,
January 2000
"Readers must
analyze and think, producing their own understanding, not simply remember
information provided by teacher or textbook." --Robert E. Probst, 1994, English
Journal
"Writing is
both a process of doing critical thinking and a product communicating the
results of critical thinking." --John
Bean, 1996, Engaging Ideas
Goals for
Student Interaction with Texts and Writing Materials:
q
Students will learn about
others
q
Students will learn how
texts operate, how they shape our thought and manipulate our emotions
q
Students will learn about
cultures and societies, their varying concepts of the "good life," of love and hate, justice and revenge, good and evil, and other
significant issues of human experience
q
Students should learn how
context shapes meaning
q
Students should learn about
the processes by which they make meaning out of literary texts
q
Students will
effectively use a variety of writing strategies to encourage reading
comprehension, critical thinking, and communicate their understanding of texts to
others
--Probst, 1994
How to Help
Students Accomplish These Goals:
ü
Invite them to respond to
the text through writing and discussion and graphic representations
ü
Give students time to shape
their responses and gain confidence in them
ü
Find links among student
responses
ü
Invite discussion and
writing about self, the text, others,
and society
ü
Look back to other texts,
discussions, and writing and forward to what students might
read next, what they might write tomorrow
For discussion, Post on the Forum!
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