Literature Circles
What are literature circles?
These are small temporary groups of students who meet to discuss a book they are reading. The students meet on a schedule and bring with them their literature circle job. Each student shares their job and then they have a discussion about topics relating to the book. The teacher acts as a facilitator and evaulates the students' jobs and participation in the group. After the book is finished, the students are placed into new groups.
Literature Circle Jobs:
Reteller: Your job is to identify the key events of the read aloud. Summarize the chapters into paragraph form.
Passage Master: Choose your favorite passage from the reading. Read it to the group with feeling. This will help people notice the most interesting, funny, puzzling, or important part of the text.
Illustrator: Your job is to draw or create a picture on your computer of a scene in the book. You may even want to draw something that conveys an idea you get from the story.
Word Wizard: Choose at least three words from the text that have a special meaning. Define each of the words and then write a paragraph that uses all three correctly.
Connector: Make a connection between the book and the world around you. Your connection could be a text to text, text to self, or text to world connection.
Researcher: Your job is to choose an idea or fact from the story and research it. You will need to find additional information about this item and write a mini-report on it.
Discussion Director: Write down a minimum of four questions to ask the group during the group discussion. These question should get the other students thinking about the story. They should not be yes or no questions.
Example: Do you think the story will reveal who Sophie's parents are, why or why not?
Scene Setter: Your job is to describe the setting in detail with words or pictures. You will follow the scene through the section read and determine where the major events happened. (where the scene began and ended)
Chiller: Your job is to chill out for the day!
Assessment:
Students will be assessed based on a four point rubric. Each student will be assessed on their literature circle job and also their participation in the discussion. Click here to view the rubric.