Literature Circles

In literature circles, small groups of students 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 onto 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.Perhaps the easiest way to understand what literature circles are is to examine what they are not.

Literature Circles are . . .	Literature Circles are not . . .
Reader response centered	Teacher and text centered
Part of a balanced literacy program	The entire reading curriculum
Groups formed by book choice	Teacher-assigned groups formed solely by ability
Structured for student independence, responsibility, and ownership	Unstructured, uncontrolled "talk time" without accountability
Guided primarily by student insights and questions	Guided primarily by teacher- or curriculum-based questions
Intended as a context in which toapplyreading and writing skills	Intended as a place to do skills work
Flexible and fluid; never look the same twice	Tied to a prescriptive "recipe"

From Getting Started with Literature Circles 

by Katherine L. Schlick Noe & Nancy J. Johnson 

Here are some resources for running Literature Circles:

Literature Circles Resource Page

Literature Circles in High School (video)

Literature Circle Role Sheets

Literature Circles in the Middle and High School Classroom Facilitator’s Guide

Literature Circles Assignment, Book List, Roles, and Assessments for a Grade 12 ELA Class

Deep Thinking Questions

Found a great resource - sentence starters for developing questions according to Bloom’s taxonomy: 

http://wwild.coe.uga.edu/pptgames/resources/bloom_questions.pdf.

Use this to develop differentiated levels of questions - and use it to teach your students how to develop their own critical thinking questions!

The New Year: A Time for Reflection

According to Assessment for Learning (from Education Services Australia), students who use self-assessment: recognize that learning is associated with a very positive kind of difficulty, which increases motivation rather than destroying it experience an increase in self-esteem experience an improvement in their learning because they come to know how they learn rather than just what they learn Teachers who encourage students to self-assess: see the responsibility for learning shifting from them to their students recognize an increase in student motivation and enthusiasm for learning and a corresponding decrease in behavioral problems are able to use feedback from their students about how they learn to shape lessons to individual and group needs rather than teaching to the mythical class as whole Strategies to Enhance Student-Self-Assessment Check out these strategies to enhance student self-assessment: reflection activities, student-led and three-way conferences, rubrics, graphic organizers, learning targets, and time management. “Be Sure To”: A Powerful Reflection Strategy A video from the Teaching Channel: The new year is a great time for reflection and goal setting. Watch Julie Manley walk her students through the “Be Sure To” strategy, allowing them to think about what they learned in class and use that knowledge to plan for the future. Daily Reflection Here's a quick formative assessment that helps students reflect on a daily basis: The Stoplight Method from Teaching Channel. Setting Goals Based on Peer Review This video is filmed in a kindergarten classroom, but if these little guys can give and receive peer review suggestions and set goals so successfully, imagine how we can use these same strategies with older students! Portfolio Assessments A great way to encourage students to be metacognitive about their learning is to assign a portfolio assessment mid-year and end-of-year. Here is a model portfolio assessment and rubric that you are welcome to adopt/adapt: Portfolio Assessment Assignment "Dear Reader" Rubric The Teacher's Role in Portfolio Assessment: An Article

Media Literacy

In a "post-truth" society, how do we teach our kids how to be critical readers of what they see? The News Literacy Project (NLP) is an innovative national education program that equips middle school and high school students with the tools to be smart, active consumers of news and information and engaged, informed citizens. Check it out here!
And check out an NPR story about it here.
Here's a great article from the School Library Journal about media literacy:
The Smell Test: Educators can counter fake news with information literacy. Here’s how.

Crash Course Literature

I'm sure you've all heard of John Green, author of The Fault in Our Stars and other great Young Adult lit.
But have you seen his Crash Course Literature videos?
If not, click here and explore!
Great resource!

How To Ensure Students Are Actively Engaged and Not Just Compliant

8 qualities that indicate students are engaged:

Does the activity, strategy, task, or idea allow for the student to personalize his or her response? Can they bring their life experiences into the activity and make it their own?

Are there clear and modeled expectations?

Is there a sense of audience above and beyond the teacher and the test? Does the activity have value to someone else?

Is there social interaction? Do students have an opportunity to talk about the learning and interact?

Is there a culture of emotional safety? Are mistake valued because they are an opportunity to learn?

Do students have opportunities to choose within the activity?

Is it an authentic activity? This doesn’t mean it always must connect directly to the student’s world, but it should connect to reality.

Is the task new and novel? If kids are bored, it’s hard to see engagement

Click here to read the entire article from Mind/Shift.

"Reading" Images

Here is a very interesting “read” and deep analysis of the recent Time magazine cover:

http://forward.com/culture/356537/why-times-trump-cover-is-a-subversive-work-of-political-art/