literature circles

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Home : 2004 : August : 12

literature circles
By shawna

I have done literature circles for a few years. I have used groups of 4 students, but only because I have had some pretty small classes. What I have done is either have the students read a chapter together or on their own
for day 1. Each student is assigned a job for that chapter. When the students finished reading they would work on their job. The Discussion Director was in charge of the group. They were the teacher. They would also write 5 "fat" questions to ask the members of their group. Fat questions are ones that cannot simply be answered by referring back to the text. Sergeant Summarizer

wrote a summary of the reading to share with the group. The Word Wizard would find 5 words that were difficult, interesting, or funny. They would write the page number down so that during the next day's discussion group,members could refer back to the word in the text. They would also define the word using a dictionary. The Connector was the person who had to write 3 connections between themselves and the reading. On day 2 of the circles, groups would meet and, under the direction of the Discussion Director, each would do their job. The Director would have the Summarizer go first and read the summary to refresh everyone's memory. Next, the Director would ask their questions and call on group members to answer. The group would have a discussion about the answer. Next, the Word Wizard would tell a word they wrote down and the group would find it in the reading. The Word Wizard would call on someone to define the word and the Wizard would tell them if they were correct. The Connector would share their connections next. When they finished, they would ask each member if they had any connections. We kept all of the students material in a folder. The next day, each member would get a new job in the group. I hope this helps!