STUDENT FACILITATION AND PREDICTORS
OF ENGAGEMENT IN PEER-LED LITERATURE
CIRCLE DISCUSSIONS
Chase J. Young
WHAT DO TEACHER WANT TO KNOW ABOUT
LITERATURE CIRCLES
• We want to know that Literature Circles are authentic,
high-level, and effective.
• VIDEO – Reading Circles
• VIDEO - Example Literature Circles in 3 rd Grade
• Discuss: If your literature circles are working, then
rejoice!
WHAT DO TEACHER WANT TO KNOW ABOUT
LITERATURE CIRCLES?
• We want to know that LCs are authentic.
• Free flowing discussions
• Choice
• Text
• Topic
• VIDEO - Fourth Grade Literature Circles
• Discuss: texts and topics
WHAT DO TEACHER WANT TO KNOW ABOUT
LITERATURE CIRCLES?
• We want to know that students are thinking on high levels.
• Assessing Discourse
• High-level Talk (Rubric)
• Comprehension (Response)
• VIDEO - Snyderites Practice Literature Circles (Reflect)
• Facilitation
• A long interesting journey…
THEORETICAL CONSIDERATION
• Scaffolding
• Not adding support, but carefully removing support
to foster independence
• Students in LCs should be closer to independence
METHODOLOGY
• Tharp and Gallimore (1988) deemed insufficient and felt forced on the
data
• Modeling – What is it in the context of peer-led LCs?
• Contingency Managing – Should students be responsible for this?
• Feedback – Does all feedback facilitate discussion?
• Questioning – Do all questions instigate deeper level discussions?
• Cognitive Structuring – Should this definition include how the brain
changes?
• Instructing – Is this the job of the students?
METHODOLOGY
• Li et al. (2007) deemed insufficient and felt forced
• Planning and Organizing – Should this be done by the teacher
prior to LCs?
• Topic Control – How do students control the topic?
• Acknowledgement – Is mere acknowledgement beneficial in LCs?
• Argument Development – Development assumes a thread of
discourse rather than an utterance
• Turn Management – Does this inhibit free-flowing discussions?
FLOW OF CODING FACILITATIVE FUNCTIONS
THARP AND GALLIMORE
LI ET AL. (2007)
• Modeling – Eliminated
• Planning and Organizing –
Eliminated
• Contingency Managing –
Eliminated
• Feedback – Included only if
elaborative
• Topic Control – Renamed Topic
Management if facilitative
(exploratory talk or confessional)
• Questioning – Included in
Exploratory Talk if high-level
• Acknowledgement – Eliminated
• Cognitive Structuring –
Eliminated
• Instructing – Eliminated
• Argument Development –
Eliminated
• Turn Management – Eliminated
FLOW OF CODING FACILITATIVE FUNCTIONS
• Deemed Facilitative
• Non-Facilitative
• Exploratory Talk (CC)
• Feedback
• Elaborative Feedback
(CC)
• Unrelated
• Topic Management
(CC)
• Confessionals (Open)
• Accountability (Open)
QUALITATIVE RESULTS
The researcher observed students facilitating discussions in five ways:
•
Exploratory Talk
•
•
Elaborative Feedback
•
•
Introducing important topics and big ideas as well as changing topic through facilitation
Confessionals
•
•
Agreeing or disagreeing and providing reasoning or text evidence
Topic Management
•
•
Asking questions that are open ended that expect high-level responses and statements
that allow for debate
Admitting when meaning breaks down and asking for help from group members
Accountability
•
Making sure all group members participate and back up their contributions and questions
with text-evidence
WHAT DO TEACHER WANT TO KNOW ABOUT
LITERATURE CIRCLES?
• We want to know that LCs are effective.
• Text Selection (3rd Grade Regression –Reading Ability)
• Group Size
• Post Hoc Regression (4 th Grade – Groups of 3 -66%)
• Personality (TIPI)
• Regression 3rd Grade (Extroversion and Lack of Contentiousness)
• Regression 4th Grade (Emotional Stability)
• Reading ability wanes
WHAT DO TEACHER WANT TO KNOW ABOUT
LITERATURE CIRCLES?
• How do we implement literature circles?
• Prepare: Quality literature, small groups, and intentional
placement of personalities
• Teach: High-level discussion techniques and facilitative
functions
PROMOTING HIGH-LEVEL DISCUSSION
•
Input
• Name, Recall, Restate, Reread, Locate, Describe, State, Inform, Define,
Identify, List
•
Process
• Compare, Contrast, Classify, Distinguish, Explain (Why), Infer, Sequence,
Analyze, Synthesize, Make Analogies, Reason
•
Output
• Evaluate, Generalize, Imagine, Judge, Predict, Speculate, If/Then, Apply a
Principle, Hypothesize, Forecast, Idealize
PROMOTING HIGH-LEVEL DISCUSSION
• I wonder, I realized, I can connect with, This is giving me the idea that, I
think, I disagree with...because…, I wish, I hope, I know, I predict, I think the
main idea is, I think the main idea of the chapter is, There is one thing I do
not like, and it is, The author should have, I think ____ is like ____ because,
This connects with, (Name) helped me understand, I partly agree with , At
first I thought...now I think...because…, I agree with (Name) because…, My
favorite part was…because, I don’t know why, I liked…because…, I think the
author’s purpose is, I was surprised, I was confused, I used context clues, I
do not get…, What if…, Why…, How do you know?, What do you mean?,
Can you repeat that?, How did…?, Do you think…?
• Teach facilitation.
FURTHER RESEARCH
• Teaching Facilitative Functions to improve student discourse
• Facilitative Function Order of Importance
• Benefits of LCs on higher and lower readers
• Personality’s impact on LC discussions
• Personality’s impact on LC discussions across grade levels
• Group size and quality of LC discussions
• Measuring comprehension on the go