March 22, 2010
Literature Circles In The Classroom
For another one of my Language and Literacy education courses (Teaching Language Arts in Secondary Schools) we are working on inquiry projects on the topic of our choice. I have decided to focus mine on student motivation with regard to reading. An article I came across, “Assessing Adolescents’ Motivation To Read” from the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literature, details a study of adolescent motivation in 384 students across the country. In their findings, the researchers mentioned literature circles as one of the activities that students felt made reading more enjoyable. They claim the students “enthusiastically talked about literature circles.” This sparked another inquiry for me.
What is a literature circle?
The Literature Circles Resource Center of Seattle University’s College of Education defines literature circles as “small groups of students who gather together to discuss a piece of literature in depth. The discussion is guided by students’ response to what they have read. You may hear talk about events and characters in the book, the author’s craft, or personal experiences related to the story. Literature circles provide a way for students to engage in critical thinking and reflection as they read, discuss, and respond to books. Collaboration is at the heart of this approach. Students reshape and add to their understanding as they construct meaning with other readers. Finally, literature circles guide students to deeper understanding of what they read through structured discussion and extended written and artistic response.”
The Literature Resource Center suggests that literature circles be used in Elementary and Middle School settings, however, they can easily be adapted to fit a high school situation.
The authors of the site, Kathy Schlick Noe and Nancy Johnson, describe literature circles as being:
- reader response centered
- part of a balanced literacy program
- formed by book choice
- structured for student independence
- guided by student insight and inquiry
- a context in which to apply reading and writing skills
- flexible and fluid
they also note that literature circles are not:
- teacher/text centered
- the entire reading curriculum
- grouped by ability
- unstructured/without accountability
- a place to do skills work
- prescriptive
How do literature circles work?
This clip mentions that there are different roles that students can hold in a literature circle. Jim Burke’s English Companion includes a pdf file that explains these roles and gives sample questions for each role as well as includes handouts students can use to fulfill their roles. The roles include:
- the discussion director - identifies important aspects of the text and develops discussion questions
- the illuminator - identifies memorable, important, or interesting passages that the group should hear read aloud
- the illustrator – draws what is read (important scenes or sequences) in cartoon form or concept maps/organizational tools
- the connector - connects what is being read with what is being learned in the school, other books, or with current events
- the word watcher – identifies important words worth knowing
- the summarizer – summarizes the selected text
What does a literature circle look like?
In this video from TeacherTube, literature circles, a group of teachers demonstrate how a literature circle operates. Unlike the first clip, this literature circle is geared toward a middle school group.
Why use literature circles?
After some investigation on the ECN, the general consensus seems to be that teachers who are using literature circles in their classrooms are really pleased with the results. It also details some teacher’s experiments with taking the literature circles to the next level by incorporating online components. Considering the fact that teachers from elementary school to twelfth grade are using adaptations of literature circles in their classrooms and seeing success, I would say that they may be an activity worth trying out.
