Day 5: Getting into the Flow

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 Quizzizz's and also digital tree maps with important events and problems from the assigned readings. See their google classroom responses to a comprehension question below.

Literature circles are not only flowing better with more practice, but improving student overall comprehension.

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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...

Day 2: Clarifying Expectations and Roles

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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...

D. Stroy Literature Circles

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