Skip to main content

Day 1: Literature Circles

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 also put students in groups of 5-6 students, and groups with 6 students would have two students performing the same role. This pre-preparation set the tone for the start of our groups.


Due to a hectic start of the week, we held our first literature circle today (Wednesday) and we were supposed to begin on Monday. Of course this caused some amendments to our reading schedule but concessions were made just for this reason. Before we started I reminded students of the roles, the assigned reading for our first meeting and logistics such as where we sit and other important details. Once students were with their groups they were excited to give their literature circle a group name. After this the work began.
Day 1 Sketch Artist

I explained to students that the first 15 minutes should be spent working on their roles and the last 15 minutes would be spent reporting their role to their teams. As the circles began, some students lost sight of that and began discussing right away and there were a few moments of dissension. We had to take a quick pause and review that while working in their roles, they should be quiet so that they are ready to report. This made me wonder if I should assign roles prior to the meeting and they work independently and then report back to their team. I also considered allowing students with the same role to get together as well to discuss their findings.

Because this class is the last of the day, our time was cut short. We will have to continue the current circle meeting tomorrow as well as read the next assigned reading to prepare for our next circle meeting. 

Some adjustments may need to be made regarding if students work on their role independently and then meet or sit with their group and complete their role and meet afterwards. For now, I will keep the same format and adjust next week if necessary.

Overall, we had a great first circle, and the students are looking forward to meeting again! 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Final Thoughts

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

Day 2: Clarifying Expectations and Roles

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

Day 3 and 4 Making Proper Adjustments

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...
Post a Comment
Read more