lit. circles

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Home : 2004 : August : 16

lit. circles
By Mary

I do literature circles with my sixth graders. I start off the year in levelled reading groups, and each group is in a book at their level. I write my own novel curriculums, because I hate the stuff the publisher comes
up with, and I use my curriculums to model how to ask higher level questions. My handouts never have more than three questions on them for the given assignment. I ask stuff about identifying the metaphor, and questions that are a lot of "what do you think" , "What would you do" as well as finding the meaning of a word using only the context. Questions like that. Then, when we go to our

next books, I boost them into literature circles, and I have them write the questions. I grade them on their questions for this second book, not their answers, as in the first book. I get them together in a circle and have them pass their questions to the right, and everyone writes an answer to the question in front of them, then pass, etc. This is called a silent discussion. Then have kids read the responses to the question they have in front of them, and let the kids react and discuss. The kids should direct their lit. circles and the discussions. It will take them a few times to learn to do it, and remember, I've modeled it first. This really teaches kids to take responsibility for their own learning, and it also teaches them how to really read and enjoy a book, not just call words, or answer a lot of dumb publisher questions (that often have nothing or little to do with the book).

This is just one way to do it, but it works for me. Mine is a demonstration classroom this year, for literature circles and differentiation. Lit. circles are among the best ways to differentiate instruction for your kids.

Good luck! What books are you planning to use? I like to pick about four, and have them all united with a common theme, such as survival or coming of age, stuff like that.