lit circles

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lit circles
By ciro

Hey Brittany-
You should get the book "Literature Circles" by Harvey Daniels. This is a great resource. In my classroom, each 5 member group had a job. I think they were discussion director, illustrator, literary luminary
(expands on an interesting passage/excerpt and makes connections to it. Group members then make their own connections [t-s, t-t, t-w]), word wizard, and summarizer. Modeling takes a while because you have to explicitly model aspects of each job. You'll be surprised at how much conversation unfolds...The most important thing though is in book choice. I give my kids a choice of 5

or 6 books. For example, my first lit circles this year will use all roald dahl books. These books are hysterical. Also, students feel empowered because they are getting to make a choice about what they're reading.