Literature Circles

Now that we are halfway through the school year and my students are becoming more independent readers, it is time to start developing literature circles.  Over the past seven years I have tried several different ways of accomplishing this. This year I decided to take what I liked from each previous year and combine it into one neat little package. Let me know if you like what you see! You can grab this on Teachers Pay Teachers by clicking HERE.

Here's how they are organized. I have five groups in my room with no more than four students per group (you could add more and just double up on the jobs but I'm fortunate enough not to have to.) I purchased a 1/2 inch binder for each group and these cute little baskets from Michaels Craft Store.  The job cards are attached to the front of the baskets with ribbon. I wrote the students' names on clothespins and then just clipped them on next to their job for that week. 

The next few pictures show what the inside of the binder looks like. The first two pages are page protectors. After the first week of completing literature circles I will take the best example from each job, copy them, and put them into the group binders for reference.

 

 In the front pocket I keep laminated bookmarks with the student's jobs on them. Whatever job they have for the week, they use the corresponding bookmark. At the end of the week (or the end of the book), they go back into the front pocket and are switched when the new jobs change. 

These are the bookmarks.

There are two hole-punched paper folders on the inside. Each pocket holds extra sheets for each job. This is the Visualizer page. Students who perform this job will illustrate what they think the character, setting, etc. looks like (in chapter books), or their favorite part (in picture books). There are lines for them to write about their illustration at the bottom of the page.

 



On the inside pockets are the Questioner and Summarizer worksheets. The questioner page has question words at the top and lines at the bottom where they can record questions they have about the text before, during, and after reading. 

 

The summarizer worksheet has two clues for the students; one for fiction and one for nonfiction. Students must write their summary of the book including the most important information.

 



Finally, there is the Connector worksheet. This is where students record their connections with the text. The three main types of connections (text to self, text to text, text to world)  are found on the arrows as a reminder.

 

 

In addition to the  binder, each basket also holds a poly folder for each student in the group.  This is where they can keep their job sheet as they work on it throughout the week. It also has a record log to keep track of their test scores (after completion of the book and group sharing, students take an AR test to check their comprehension).  The comment log is for both the teacher and student to write in. It is where notes can be made on what the student is doing well at and what they still need to work on.

 





Last step is to add the books! For the first week, I am doing the same book with each group so that I can explicitly model and monitor how they are doing. As they get the hang of it I will vary the books and reading levels so that they can become more independent.

 

 

Here's the final product!! If you are interested in using this in your classroom please leave me some feedback and let me know your thoughts! Happy Teaching!

 

Okay, so we have been using the LC for the last two weeks and they seem to be going GREAT! I love that the kids are starting to take ownership of what they are doing. We still have some work to do in order to make them all independent but we are definitely on the right track... here are some pics of my little thinkers hard at it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are some of the example papers that I picked after week 1 to copy and put in all of the group binders...