Immersed in Reading! 

Literature Circles in the Middle Years 

By 

Faye Brownlie

Hosted by theThe 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