D. Stroy Literature Circles

As the final weeks progressed, I did not get a chance to blog our last literature circles and book wrap up. Thank goodness, I took good notes and have all of the student work and Google classroom assignments. We wrapped up reading Because of Winn Dixie during our final week of school. We did not get to have a meeting on the last three chapters due to time constraints and an interest in watching the movie and comparing it to what we read in our book. The students were so excited to finish the book and compare the events in the story. Throughout our year together we spent a great deal of time learning to compare and contrast characters, settings, and key events in similar fiction stories. In this case, we were comparing a book and movie version. As the students watched, we all took note of characters, settings or events that happened in the book that appeared or didn't appear in the book. It was thrilling to hear and watch the students note with great detail how similar the b...

Today we finally got a workable flow with our literature circles. The students are increasingly becoming confident in their roles, the routine and how to have more in depth discussions. We are nearing the end of the school year and the end of our book. I have noticed as we progress through the book how much better their comprehension is via their recorded responses. On this day the students were more detailed in their drawing and discussion about some of the events in the story. As I sat with one group, the assigned reading for the day was about one character detailing her father's experiences in the war. The students were having in depth conversations about how the character was feeling and even understood what the author meant when they described Littmus Lozenges as having sorrow as it's secret ingredient. Independent student work and comprehension has also shown great improvement. After literature circles, students log on to Google classroom and complete comprehension...

With literature circles being a new venture for both my students and myself I've found it necessary to make several adjustments to make the circles flow better and encourage more productivity. We've been debating whether it is best to read the assigned chapters and then meet on the same day followed by the next assigned reading or meet from the previous day and read the assigned reading to prepare for the next day. While observing students in their circles, a lot of time is being spent searching for their evidence when we meet the day after reading instead of on the same day. Of course this is necessary for each of the roles especially the text detective that looks for passages I think the students are trying to remember events from the assigned readings. Tomorrow we will read the assigned readings chapters 15-16, students will complete their roles and then meet with their groups. I am looking forward to seeing if this change not only saves time but allows for more in depth d...

Day 2 of literature circles was a continuation of roles and discussion from yesterday. Yesterday students were able to complete their role but we did not have enough class time before the end of the day to share, discuss, and report findings to their teams. Today, we met with our groups with the same roles, completed recording sheets and began reporting roles to the group. We are currently operating four literature circle groups: The FBI Juniors, Dixie Detectives, Mystery Readers, and Team Undercover. The FBI Juniors and Team Undercover were the most successful and engaged in the task of discussion about the book. Team Undercover in particular with some facilitation from me were able to conduct a successful circle in which they discussed interesting words, great quotes from the chapters, and sketched important scenes. The FBI Juniors were doing a great job finishing up their roles and being considerate of one of their group mates that left early the day prior and still needed to do h...

Last week we completed our introduction to literature circles. Students were introduced to their detective themed literature circle roles accompanied by the cryptic sounds of the Criminal Minds show theme song. During the introduction, students practiced each role with a book of their choosing to prepare for our first meeting the following week. The excitement! Doing our introduction earlier set the stage for our first meeting so that we would have more class time to read focus on the roles and implement our first circle. Badges Literature Circle Roles I haven't utilized literature circles before so it was very important to get as much organized prior to the start of our first meeting.  We started reading our book, Because of Winn Dixie ,  about a week before the start of circles to get into the flow of reading a novel together. I created folders for each role including the recording sheet,  a group folder and the students even have badges for their role. I ...