Immersed in Reading!
Literature Circles in the Middle Years
By
Faye Brownlie
Hosted by the
The BC Ministry of Education
What Really Matters for Struggling Readers
• reading volume
• high success reading opportunities
• engage in literate conversations
• useful, explicit strategy instruction
Richard Allington, Vancouver,
LOMCIRA Fall Conference, October 2004
Grade 4/5
Strategies:
• various strategies for unknown words
Comprehension:
• identifying main ideas and relevant details
Content: Vikings
Strategies:
Listen and Sketch
•
whole class repeated read aloud
•
sketch ‘what’s happening’
•
emphasize one way to learn new words in context
•
compare with a partner
•
listen again
•
add on
Note Taking
•as a class, highlight the words you needed for
your sketch on the overhead
They have placed me outside their tents where
they can keep an eye on me. I notice they took
care to stake me in a grassy area empty of
anything but myself. There is nothing close by
that I can use to cut the bindings that tie my
wrists to the stake.
Joan Carter – Dream Carvers
In partners, read another section of
the text
• individually, underline key words
• together, compare your underlined
words and highlight key words
Webbing
Students are working in small groups, collecting
information on their aspect of Viking life.
• as a class, create a web of what is currently
known about Vikings
• use three colours of chalk for the web, one for
Viking, a second for big ideas about Vikings, a
third for details
• students give an idea and tell what colour it
should be written in
• students individually web what they
remember about their aspect of Viking life
• students meet in partners and add on
information – in a second colour
• students read independently for 20 minutes
• students return to their webs and add on
information in a third colour
Collaborative Summary
• individually each student generates three big
ideas about the topic being studied
• these are written down, one per strip of paper
• students meet in pairs and negotiate their six
ideas into three
• pairs meet in groups of four and negotiate
their six ideas into three
• students write one paragraph for each big
idea – 10 to 15 minute write
• each step of the process is modeled
• an idea is a big idea if you can talk
about it, adding on, for 1 minute
• students reflect on how their
negotiations worked
Literature Circles
• no assigned roles
• no limits on amount of reading
• constantly changing discussion groups
• student choice of books
• journals
• bi-weekly comprehension strategies
Introducing Lit Circles:
Novice:
• ‘say something’
• learning how to talk about text
* See My Relatives in Resource Package
Experienced:
• ‘The Story Behind the Poem’ (Student
Diversity; Brownlie, Feniak)
• setting the stage (themes and/or critical
issues)
* See Hiroshima Exit in Resource Package
Marketing the Books
Novice/Experienced:
• ‘managed choice’ – choose two books
• background/brief summary/length/style – ‘notice
that’
• who would like this book/why
• read a page
Grade 4/5
Number the Stars - Lois Lowry
*Stone Fox - John G. Reynolds
Midnight Fox - Betsy Byars
Woo -Constance Horne
Jacob’s Little Giant - Barbara Smucker
How Come the Best Clues Are Always in the
Garbage? - Linda Bailey
Lucy and the Big Bad Wolf - Ann Jungman
Grade 4/5, Canadian Historical Fiction
Camp X – Eric Walters
*Danger at the Landing – Becky Citra (Orca Young Reader)
The Lost Sketch – Andrea and David Spalding (Adventure Net)
Terror in the Harbour – Sharon McKay (Our Canadian Girls)
Across the James Bay Bridge – Julie Lawson (Our Canadian Girls)
A Mighty Big Imagining – Lynne Kositsky (Our Canadian Girls)
Hobo Jungle – Dorothy Harris (Our Canadian Girls)
Grade 5/6
The Breadwinner – Deborah Ellis
Parvana’s Journey – Deborah Ellis
Good-bye Marianne – Irene N. Watts
Remember Me - Irene N. Watts
Island – Gordon Korman
Bridge to Terabithia – Katherine Paterson
Holes – Louis Sachar
Grade 6/7, Hope/Courage/Survival/Persecution
*When the Soldiers Were Gone – Vera W. Propp
Daniel’s Story – Carol Matas
Jesper – Carol Matas
Willow and Twig – Jean Little
The Old Brown Suitcase – Lillian Boraks-Nemetz
Goodbye, Vietnam – Gloria Whelan
So Far from the Bamboo Grove – Yoko Kawashima
Watkins, Jean Fritz
Grade 6/7
The Saga of Darren Shan – Darren Shan
Roman Mystery Series – Caroline Lawrence
Silverwing Series – Kenneth Oppal
Run – Eric Walters
Feather Boy – Nicky Singer
Hitler’s Daughter – Jackie French
Petey – Ben Mickaelsen
Habibi – Naomi Shihab Nye
The Amah – Lawrence Yep
The Girls – Amy Goldman Koss
The Shadow Children Series – Margaret Peterson Haddix
Grade 8/9
Soldier Boys – Dean Hughes
Caught in the Crossfire – Alan Gibbons
The Shakespeare Stealer - Gary Blackwood
Running Loose – Chris Crutcher
Hope Was Here – Joan Bauer
Search of the Moon King’s Daughter – Linda Holman
Private Peaceful – Michael Morpurgo
The Garbage King – Elizabeth Laird
Lord of the Nutcracker Men – Iain Lawrence
Lit Circle Conversations
Novice:
• begin with ‘say something’
• each student responds in turn
• general conversation can follow
• teacher meets with each group
• other students are reading
Experienced:
• groups meet simultaneously
• teacher moves from group to group
• begins with student observations or questions
about their reading
• groups can all be talking about an assigned
critical focus
Response Journals
Novice:
• double-entry journals
• written in class, together
• 10 minute write
• develop criteria for powerful responses
Response Journals
Experienced:
• personal response
• written as individually appropriate, independently
• establish criteria for powerful responses
Double-entry Journal
What Happened
My Thinking
Event 1
Event 2
* See Terror in the Harbour in Resource Package
Quote
My Thinking
1.
2.
* See The Giver in Resource Package
Dialogue Journal
• students reading the same book, in about the
same place
• students write to each other
• the next day students exchange books and
respond to each other
* See Cleopatra VII in Resource Package
Integrated Response
-students write in response to what they are
reading, including both text references and personal
connections
* See Power of Family in Resource Package
Comprehension Strategies
Novice:
• every two weeks, as a class
• specific comprehension focus chosen based
on student need and curriculum
Comprehension Strategies
Experienced:
• every two weeks
• students can choose their comprehension
strategy to demonstrate the specific
curriculum outcome
Comprehension Strategies can include:
Containers for Characters
Comprehension Strategies can include:
• Setting
• Venn Diagram
• Venn Diagram with 2 books
• Character Tree
• Hot Seat
*See Resource Package for Examples
Finale/Culminating Activities
Novice/Experienced:
Write to the teacher, a letter of advice, about
teaching Lit. Circles
* See Resource Package for Samples
Finale/Culminating Activities
• may vote on best reads, books to exclude, have a
book club party
• consider the question, ‘What have these books
taught you about life and living?’ (Drew Davies)
• ideogram on the theme