Literature Teachers Chatboard

next post

skip topic

Print | Share | Report Post

Re: Chele--Lit. Circles--talk to me... for Wanda
Posted by Chele/5/SoCal on 7/21/08

You betcha!

mosinski@tvusd.k12.ca.us

On 7/21/08, Wanda wrote:
> Thanks for the helpful information. I am a 5th. grade teacher
> in Texas and my school wants me to introduce Literature Circles
> this year. I am reading a book by Debbie Diller, Practice with
> Purpose. But it is so great to find teachers who actually do
> these literature circles. I may have more questions later. Can
> I e-mail you for help? Thanks to all you gave me new insight to
> this new reading strategy.
>
>
>
>
> On 7/15/08, Chele/5/SoCal wrote:
>> Sorry, in advance... this got VERY long. But it's very
>> detailed and that's good, right? :-D
>>
>> I've had to modify how I LIKE to do Lit. Circles based on my
>> students' needs, but when I taught some more mature students
>> (hopefully your 8th graders are more mature than my 5th
>> graders ;-)), this is what we did:
>>
>> 1) I chose a genre and then several books within that genre. I
>> put one copy of each book out on a table along with index
>> cards. I had each student write their top 3 choices on the
>> index card (and their name :D). I took the cards and
>> *attempted* to give each student his/her first choice. I
>> reserved the right, however, to separate folks that wouldn't
>> work well together or to veto a book choice based on reading
>> level (either too easy or too hard). Ultimately, I made 6 or
>> so groups with 5 or so people in each group. Over the years I
>> have collected hundreds of titles with 8 books in each set, so
>> my groups can be that big if necessary; however, I would split
>> a group of 8 into two groups of 4 if I had that many kids pick
>> the same book.
>>
>> 2) Groups met briefly to decide on how many chapters they
>> would read each week. Meetings were to be held on Thursdays
>> over a month's time, so they had to take the number of pages
>> or chapters and divide it by 4; rounding up or down when
>> necessary. I advised them to be "heavy" the first week, if
>> necessary, since they'd be excited about their new book and
>> more willing to read more. I wrote down each group's "plan"
>> and kept it posted somewhere safe so that if they "forgot" how
>> many pages/chapters they were supposed to read, it was easy to
>> find out.
>>
>> 3) Reading was done independently. Kids could read during
>> class time or at home. They could buddy read if they wanted
>> to. Maybe you can fit in a 20-30 minute silent reading time
>> once a week (Tuesdays with meetings on Thursdays?).
>>
>> 4) Students also wrote a half-page response in their Lit.
>> Logs. I made Logs by folding paper "hot dog"/tall style (just
>> to be different) so their half-page was tall and narrow. They
>> were instructed to write "edge to edge" (ignoring margins) and
>> "top to bottom". Inside the back cover, I gave them sentence
>> starters such as "I like the way the author..." or "This
>> character reminds me of...". The focus was on telling me what
>> they were thinking about the story, not summarizing. It is
>> easy to tell who is doing their reading from their responses.
>> ;-) It also seems that the students like sharing their
>> thoughts and feelings more than writing a summary.
>>
>> 5) On meeting day, groups gathered and each member read
>> his/her response aloud. This usually created many discussions
>> on its own. Then, I posted an open-ended question on the board
>> - one that could apply to any book - based on a skill or
>> strategy we were working on. For example, if we were working
>> on characterization, the question might be "If your main
>> character was an animal, what would s/he be... and why?" Each
>> member is required to respond, and then the group votes to
>> determine who had the best answer. I told them they could have
>> a 2-way tie, but beyond that, they had to figure out a way to
>> break the tie. The winner(s) received 4 raffle tickets (2/2
>> split for a tie) toward Friday rewards. The competitive nature
>> of this kept everyone engaged. Concerning your "staying on
>> topic" worry, there was a time limit, and if I didn't have a
>> team's winner in my hand at X time, that group was
>> disqualified from the sharing and tickets.
>>
>> I walked around and sat in on some of the meetings...
>> randomly... but I tried to hit at least half of the groups one
>> week and the others the next.
>>
>> 5) Each group would stay in their meeting spot and we'd have a
>> share-out. Each "winner" would share a bit about their book
>> and then his/her answer.
>>
>> 6) I collected each student's Lit. Log and gave quick check,
>> check-plus, check-minus effort marks, possibly a few comments,
>> and returned the Logs the next day. The checks became a letter
>> grade at the end of the month. I also had each student fill
>> out an index card that "graded" his/her team. I asked the
>> students to tell me if their team is struggling in any way (so
>> I can help before next week's meeting) and/or how each
>> individual team member was going to help to improve their team
>> score for next week. They also shared celebrations about
>> things their group was or individual members were doing well.
>> They were usually brutally honest as these cards are
>> confidential and just between the individual students and me.
>>
>> Sometimes we'd do a wrap up project, but I mostly just wanted
>> the kids to enjoy READING and discussing their books with each
>> other. I didn't want them bogged down in "Discussion Director"
>> or "Vocabulary Vixen" (heehee) worksheets. At the end of each
>> month, I also did round-robin group-on-group sessions so that
>> the groups could share about their books with the other groups
>> to encourage (or discourage) others to/from reading their
> book.
>>
>> Altogether, these meetings were about 20 minutes (once we'd
>> done them a while and got it down) once a week, which leaves
>> you plenty of time to get to your other skills/concepts.
>>
>> As far as incompletes, it is an assignment just like anything
>> else, and the same consequences apply.
>>
>> After reading this and remembering how fun it was, I am
>> anxious to see if I can make it work with next year's group.
>>
>> HTH,
>> Chele :)
>>
>> On 7/15/08, GA/8 wrote:
>>> I've been teaching 8th grade language arts for 5 years,
>>> and desperately want to implement literature circles in my
>>> classroom. I have tried to implement them several times
>>> in the past 5 years, but something always seems to get in
>>> the way (i.e. lack of time, lack of resources, lack of
>>> proper 'teaching' of how to do literature circles, etc.).
>>> I am DETERMINED this will be the year that literature
>>> circles come to life in my room.
>>>
>>> That said, here are my issues:
>>> 1. I teach 60 minute classes (4 per day) of Language
>>> Arts, so am required to teach reading, writing, and
>>> grammar curriculum. Time is an issue, particularly during
>>> the 1st semester when our curriculum is VERY focused on
>>> expository and persuasive writing. Where do you find the
>>> time?
>>>
>>> 2. Every time that I have attempted to 'do' lit. circles,
>>> students inevitably don't talk about their books. HOW do
>>> you get it into their heads that this is the time to talk
>>> about the book they chose, rather than the party on
>>> Friday? I've tried the 'role' sheets, I've tried reading
>>> logs...but they inevitably just don't talk about what they
>>> are supposed to talk about.
>>>
>>> 3. What do you do about the students or groups that just
>>> don't read the book?
>>>
>>> 4. Do you allow reading time in class or is reading for
>>> lit. circles to be on the student's own time (again, class
>>> time is an issue--I'm trying to figure out silent reading
>>> time, but don't know if I can swing it daily).
>>>
>>> I do have decent collection of books that I can use (about
>>> 15 different titles, with 10-20 copies per title
>>> available). I know that choice is key, and the books that
>>> I used last year for lit. circles, most of my students
>>> said that they were good books that they enjoyed.
>>>
>>> ANY and ALL tidbits of advice would be GREATLY appreciated.


RESPOND TO THIS POST START A NEW THREAD RETURN TO CHATBOARD




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.