Perfecting the circle
See how one teacher reshaped literature circles to fit her middle school classroom.
Salyers’ Middle East reading choices
- Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (graphic novel)
- Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
- Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas
- A Stone in My Hand by Cathryn Clinton
- Kiss the Dust by Elizabeth Laird
- Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis
Learn more
Related pages
- Real-world approaches to reading: Techniques for providing children with the literacy-rich environment that is crucial to both reading and writing success.
- Bubba: A Cinderella story: This lesson focuses on the whimsical interpretation of the Cinderella story. Students explore the story Bubba, the Cowboy Prince, through rich text and interpretations of the story.
Related topics
- Learn more about Middle East, literature circles, and reading.
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Literature circles sound so physically active. While we all know that for the body they are actually pretty passive, for the mind, I’d heard that literature circles can provide the equivalent of a decathlon. I learned about these circles in college education classes and staff development sessions. I had come across references to them in the pile of books by my bed. Perhaps it was time to see what they could do in my classroom.
My classroom is what you would call “well-lived in.” It is a time capsule of projects past, stray models, and books stacked like skyscrapers. Students know by taking one look at my desk not to leave anything there they don’t want to disappear. In contrast, literature circles demand high levels of organization. Making them work would be interesting.
In order to sharpen the fuzzy image in my head of students enthusiastically reading and discussing a book in small groups, I turned to Harvey Daniels. While he is not considered the inventor of literature circles, he was there at conception and is a pioneer of their evolution. Since he is the most prolific writer on the subject, his work was conveniently available at several area bookstores.
According to Daniels, “literature circles are small, peer-led discussion groups whose members have chosen to read the same story, poem, articles, or book.”1 What I appreciate from Daniels is his encouragement to explore various applications of this active-reading approach. While so many staff development meetings are littered with “new (catchy), effective (silver bullet) teaching approaches (slogans)” to boost student achievement, there is often a lack of direct instruction on implementation or discouragement towards adaptation to one’s own classroom environment and teaching style.
One of the prejudices I had concerning literature circles was the infamous roles and tasks, often supported by Disney-esque worksheets, that were supposed to guide each member of each group into a responsibility. During my first year of teaching, I had tried to use these role worksheets in a desperate attempt to fill the minutes and lead meaningful discussions on a book I didn’t like in the first place. This activity did fill the minutes of the period, but with frustration, panic, and boredom…in the students and myself alike. This style of literature circle wasn’t going to work for my students or me.
In my second year, when I got serious about literature circles and consulted Daniels on this issue, I was pleased to discover that he didn’t endorse the roles fully either. His recommendation was to implement roles if potential reading avenues needed to be taught or to shake stagnant discussion habits.2
So, with role-sheets chucked, confidence on-board, and a good knowledge of how the students in my classes learned best, I set out to design a successful unit based on literature circles.
Planning
Daniels offers the following eleven principles to guide teachers though the many choices they have while preparing for literature circle implementation. These principles were quite helpful when I found myself at a crossroads in my unit planning.
Guiding Principles, from Harvey Daniels to Literature Circle Facilitators3:
- Students choose their own reading materials.
- Small temporary groups are formed, based on book choice.
- Different groups read different books.
- Groups meet on a regular, predictable schedule to discuss their reading.
- Kids use written or drawn notes to guide their reading and discussion.
- Discussion topics come from the students.
- Group meetings aim to be open, natural conversations about books, so personal connections, digressions, and open-ended questions are welcome.
- The teacher serves as facilitator, not a group member or instructor.
- Evaluation is by teacher observation and student self-evaluation.
- A spirit of playfulness and fun pervades the room.
- When books are finished, readers share with their classmates, and then new groups form around new reading choices.
Several times during the planning, implementing, and revising of my literature circle-based units, I found myself looking to this list to answer questions such as “What do I do now?” Or “Is this ok?”
At some point in the planning, reality creeps in. As the idealism of using a new teaching approach starts to balloon, I was reminded that I have one hundred seventh-graders, split into four classes, a whopping thirty books, and forty-five minutes per period. Numbers always seem to bring one back down to earth at a rapid speed.
What I know about seventh graders, especially my seventh graders:
- They are wiggly.
- Boredom easily sets in.
- Like, duh, they know it all.
- Everything in their world is dramatic.
- They liken themselves to freedom fighters in the quest towards autonomy.
- They are nowhere close to being autonomous, in anything.
- Talking and note passing is enjoyed and preferred over most other activities.
I set out to use this knowledge to my advantage to recreate that blissful scene in my mind of students enthusiastically engaged in book discussion.
The students had studied the historical significance and culture of the Middle East with their social studies teacher in weeks past. I thought it appropriate to create a literature circle around the writings of authors from the region. I had some concerns over potential subject-dwelling. What if I had students tuning out the literature circles because we were talking about a region already studied? What if I had students who just didn’t care at all?
These questions are not new to a classroom teacher. Early on in our careers the bubble of idealism is popped and the ability to hook a student into wanting to learn becomes our objective far before the first assessment. This is where student ownership and choice come in. I needed to get my students to the point where they were eager to read and eager to share their thoughts.
Setting the stage
In order to create an emotional tie between student and topic, I chose a compelling chapter from one of the six novels I had chosen for our theme of Middle Eastern women writers. I selected a chapter from the graphic novel, Persepolis that required censoring a curse word (which provided for excellent discussions on word choice, censorship, and taboo) and presented violation of human rights. Hook, line, and sinker. Not only were students engaged throughout the study of the selected text, I was also able to model the reading and discussion strategies.
The first thing I asked after I had “hooked” the class with the reading was, “Did you like it?” I wanted to validate student opinions as soon as possible to promote ownership over an open discussion environment where student voice ruled. This also provided a fantastic opportunity for me to review the importance of supporting one’s opinion with textual evidence, personal connections, and comparative art. The students excelled at this opening activity because the text was unfamiliar, yet interesting. “Especially by language arts class standards” one student commented.
A presentation of books
I had grabbed their attention. Now I just had to hold it. As my students entered the classroom the next time we met, they were faced by a large display of books. Propped up on their ends, more than forty books captured their interest with a variety of colors, sizes, genres, and topics related to the Middle East. I let the students peruse the books by sight only, leading into a brief warm-up discussion about judging a book by its cover: how the cover creates first impressions and can captivate a reader.
This classroom conversation eventually led into a book talk given by our school’s teacher-librarian and me. We narrowed the collection of books to six to offer to students, and took turns summarizing those six books the students would choose from. We also role-played intellectual conversations about the books, described our thoughts while reading and lasting impressions, and explained whether it was “a book for me.”
By adding a bit of dramatic flair to this presentation of books, students were able to witness how one can question, relate to, like or dislike, and think about a particular book. Many students expressed appreciation for the example demonstrating how to think when choosing a book. Students were taking ownership over their choices that resulted in a sense of investment during the more laborious days in literature circles still to come.
Logistics
I had one hundred students, four class periods, and thirty books. I had ten copies for each of the three lower to average reading ability titles. I asked students reading above grade level to purchase a copy of their book, and offered financial aid to those who needed it. I sent all students home with a permission slip, complete with book synopses, to encourage a discussion at home about school and reading.
Once the permission slips were in, I assigned groups of no more than six students to read the same text. This is where knowledge of one’s students comes in handy. I was able to sidestep any potential hazards of friend-grouping, place leaders with those who needed direction, and match up strengths and weaknesses. Each student was placed with conscious deliberation for the purpose of sustaining meaningful conversation, highlighting strengths, and working on weaknesses.
Do not take this step lightly. In my experience of conducting literature circles, this act of creating groups has the second greatest effect on achieving success on a daily basis. The first, I believe, is creating a safe environment where students come first and feel comfortable expressing their views and thoughts.
My personal tips:
- Opt for more small groups instead of fewer large groups.
- Ask for your co-workers opinions because they may see a potentially successful or hazardous match-up.
- Be willing to move a student in or out a group after reading has begun if it would benefit the student and the group as a whole.
- Once groups are posted and formed, have each group create a name that is related to their groups’ chosen text and to select a group captain. The name will help in unifying the group quickly and the captain will take ownership over the success of the group by motivating members and keeping the discussion on track. The captain also helps in moving desks, getting books, and reporting on the group’s progress.
Scheduling
After groups were set, desks were moved, and books passed out, I provided two items that must be filled out and turned in by every student at the completion of the unit. The first is a theme chart. It is a simple 3 × 5 grid that provides room for three textual examples of each of the five main themes that are common for all six of the books.
The second item is a calendar of the month when the literature circles will dominate the classroom. On the calendar, groups will decide how many pages or chapters they will read on the Protected Reading Days in order to be finished by the predetermined end date. It is important to instruct students to do the calendar in pencil, because as we all know, plans change. But as they do, groups will need to adjust page requirements to meet the deadline. Before the class begins their readings, I check and discuss each group’s plan for reading. The practice of planning one’s time in order to accommodate deadlines is a skill that will benefit them for the rest of their lives and parents have thanked me for helping their children learn personal responsibility.
Traditionally, Protected Independent Reading Days are Mondays, and half of class on both Wednesdays and Thursdays. Every Monday students are also issued a reflection sheet. This sheet asks five questions that follow the hierarchy of Bloom’s Taxonomy. The sheet is to be completed before coming to class on Tuesday.
Tuesday is Discussion Day when group captains start off the discussion and all members participate with responses drawn from the reflection sheets. I, along with the teacher-librarian or another co-worker, move about the room silently taking notes on who is engaged and identifying strengths and weaknesses of individuals as well as groups. Each student receives a grade for the completion of his or her reflection sheet and a separate grade for level of engagement in the discussion. I find that the check system works best because it provides assessment for average participation, as well as below and above average work. Students have been told what each check means and how each is received. It proves to be quite effective on maintaining a high-level of productivity and depth of content.
Wednesday and Thursday classes are split. The first half is usually set aside for independent reading and during the second half, I give a whole class lesson. Lessons may cover the cultural significance of the literature, protest and censorship, or the arts in the authors’ countries of origin or the setting of a particular text. Once in a while, we’ll have language lesson of basic words and phrases (in this case, Arabic, Hebrew, and Farsi) or sample cuisine and music from the related culture. I find that the break from reading and subsequent discussion is beneficial in keeping Tuesday’s discussions lively.
Fridays are set aside for project work and/or independent reading, depending on the progress of the group. Each group has a project, which is selected by the group from a list of five options, and each individual also has a project that they select from four options. Fridays provide an excellent opportunity for groups to use the reading and lessons from the week to move forward on the project. I also think that having an ongoing project, as opposed to only a final assessment, keeps students from feeling overwhelmed and is a good lesson on time management.
The results
The end of the unit was not stressful. I emphasize this because for myself and other colleagues, the end of a unit and the thrust towards final projects, assessments, and presentations (let alone the fear of students not finishing the book in the first place) is enough to ask, “What in the heck was I thinking when I planned this?” However, I never had a chance to question my sanity. With literature circles, students are invested from the beginning with their energy, time, effort, grades, and for some, their money. Pride, interest, and confidence keep momentum high and confusion low because students are given options from day one, and a dependable schedule.
Every single group and every single student completed and turned in a project. Good projects too! Presentations included puppet shows of important scenes, music fitting a book soundtrack, poetry reflective of close character analysis, epilogues composed in the style of the author read, and investigations into important topics discussed in the novels.
It is easy to rattle off highlights such as seeing two students who read below grade level conduct a thirty-minute discussion on their book without assistance or redirection from an adult, or when the class-clown stopped silly behavior from groupmates because “there are serious questions to be discussed before the bell rings,” or how after the unit many students went on to borrow books read by other groups—which they then read on their own time! All along I was hoping for decent discussion, consistent effort, and for my students to learn about the culture, literature, and voice of Middle Eastern authors. My goals for the unit were met. Students’ goals for themselves were exceeded, which is the best ending of all.
