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Re: research points to the value of student based learning
Posted by JGS on 7/21/08

I think successful Literature Circles require a little bit of both.
My circles are interspersed with mini lessons on a variety of skills
that I want students to be aware of/practice in their groups. During
my read-aloud time I model some of the thinking/questioning practices
i want to see during Literature Circle time.

On 7/21/08, cam wrote:
> Of course the teacher is an essential part of learning, but to
> dismiss the students' own abilities to learn from one another is
> doing a disservice to the entire learning process, in my opinion. In
> a lit circle the teacher acts as a guide. In my experience, I sit in
> with each group during discussion meetings, and offer guidance
> dependent upon what each group is doing. The expectation is not
> that the students are teaching each other anything, rather, they are
> sharing points of view, ideas, and hence, learning from each other.
> These are very important life skills: to learn from doing, to debate
> issues civilly, and to recognize others' points of view as valid,
> even if not in line with our own.
> I choose the books we use, have read each one myself, and arrange
> the groups according to whom I think can best benefit from a
> particular storyline.
> I disagree with one poster's idea of abandoning lit circles to
> instead present "points he (the teacher)thinks others should
> appreciate" and "leading the class to points he wants them to see"
> because I prefer to let my class be independent thinkers who can
> decide what points, literary and otherwise, they deem important and
> fascinating. I further expect them to be able to support their
> reasoning.
> There is plenty of teaching opportunities that require the teacher
> to impart facts and information that is not open to speculative
> thinking, e.g. 25 x 5 = 125, but I don't believe that literary
> analysis is among them.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>> Sorry, but I didn't understand a word you said.
>>
>>
>> On 7/21/08, L. Swilley wrote:
>>>
>>> If students can produce for themselves the important
>>> factors in a work of literature, what need have we of
>>> teachers?
>>>
>>> Let the teacher begin with a very short work, a very
>>> short story or a poem - one that he himself finds
>>> fascinating, with points that he thinks others should
>>> appreciate; let him/her read this through with his class,
>>> making sure that every word is understood. Let him then
>>> begin asking questions of individual students to lead the
>>> class to an understanding of the points he wants them to
>>> see. (If the story is one to be read the night before by the
>>> student, let the teacher give a "cranky" 5-minute quiz -
>>> e.g., a matching test with 10 items on one side and 13 on
>>> the other - to determine who has read the story carefully
>>> and who has not.)
>>>
>>> There is no other way to approach and teach a work of
>>> literature - unless the teacher is Dame Judy Dench or Sir
>>> Lawrence Olivier and can make the work dramatically "live".
>>>
>>> Students do not teach one another in the classroom but by
>>> being asked by a teacher (who knows what she wants the class
>>> to learn) to respond to an answer given by a student who has
>>> just answered a teacher's previous question, both the
>>> previous question and the present one directing the class to
>>> factors the teacher knows they all should know and
>>> appreciate ("If you agree with what Sally has just said,
>>> what should we think of ..... in the story? If you don't
>>> agree, please tell us what in the story contradicts her
>>> remark - then give us an answer to the question I just asked
>>> her.")
>>>
>>> L. Swilley


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Posts on this thread, including this one


• Lit. Circles--talk to me..., 7/15/08, by GA/8.
• Re: Lit. Circles--talk to me..., 7/15/08, by in the same boat.
• Re: Lit. Circles--talk to me..., 7/15/08, by Chele/5/SoCal.
• Re: Try these links...more inside, 7/19/08, by cam.
• Re: Try these links...more inside, 7/21/08, by JGS.
• Re: Abandon literary circles , 7/21/08, by L. Swilley .
• Re: Abandon literary circles , 7/21/08, by Confused.
• Re: Confused, 7/21/08, by Really? I thought Swilley was very clear + on target! nfm.
• Re: research points to the value of student based learning, 7/21/08, by cam.
• Re: research points to the value of student based learning, 7/21/08, by JGS.
• Re: Chele--Lit. Circles--talk to me..., 7/21/08, by Wanda.
• Re: Chele--Lit. Circles--talk to me... for Wanda, 7/21/08, by Chele/5/SoCal.
• Re: Implementing Lit. Circles, 7/24/08, by Laura.
• Re: Implementing Lit. Circles - Q for Laura, 7/24/08, by new teacher.
• Re: Implementing Lit. Circles - I'm not Laura, but... :D, 7/24/08, by Chele/5/SoCal.
• Re: Implementing Lit. Circles - Q for Laura, 7/25/08, by JGS.
• Re: Implementing Lit. Circles - Q for Laura, 7/25/08, by Laura.