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 discussion during circles being that students will complete their roles immediately after their independent reading.
Something I noticed after the first few days of our work is some of the students were not fully completing the duties of the roles. For example, the text detective is responsible for searching for important passages, quotes, or memorable moments from the chapter. The students did a great job of finding their quotes but neglected to explain the significance of the passages. Today we had a quick meeting to review the full responsibilities of the roles and taking the time to be prepared to share everything they learned while completing their circle job. After this discussions their recording sheets were much more detailed. I also gave the word detectives access to wordcentral.com to find the definitions of the words they notated on their sheet. I believe that this coupled with reading and meeting on the same day our literature circles will continue to be engaging.
One more thing....
One of my students is reading Harry Potter independently. She and a friend applied their literature circle roles to this choice reading. Check out these girls being word detectives all on their own! Yes!!!!!
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 discussion during circles being that students will complete their roles immediately after their independent reading.
Something I noticed after the first few days of our work is some of the students were not fully completing the duties of the roles. For example, the text detective is responsible for searching for important passages, quotes, or memorable moments from the chapter. The students did a great job of finding their quotes but neglected to explain the significance of the passages. Today we had a quick meeting to review the full responsibilities of the roles and taking the time to be prepared to share everything they learned while completing their circle job. After this discussions their recording sheets were much more detailed. I also gave the word detectives access to wordcentral.com to find the definitions of the words they notated on their sheet. I believe that this coupled with reading and meeting on the same day our literature circles will continue to be engaging.
One more thing....
One of my students is reading Harry Potter independently. She and a friend applied their literature circle roles to this choice reading. Check out these girls being word detectives all on their own! Yes!!!!!
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