lit circles

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lit circles
By elaine

Trish,
I love to do lit circles and my children LOVE having the choice in what they read. This is my first year teaching 5th grade.
I use lit circles along side our reading program (Open Court). You see, this reading
program was adopted last year, and lots of money was spent on it so I am required to use it. It is a good program, but I like to use trade books as well.
Anyway, Thurdays are our lit circle days. The first Thursday I introduce the book choices and the children choose. I then have meetings with the children discussing how we will break up the reading assignments. They receive

their lit packets at this time.
We meet every thursday--packets and reading must be complete to participate. I usually have three groups, and each group takes about 15-20 minutes.
You would be cutting it close in forty minutes. Maybe you could have a lit circle meeting three days a week (one for each group) while the rest of the class is doing their independent work.
Also, if you only had two groups, you should have plenty ot time.