Literature Circles
What are Literature Circles?
Literature circles, also known as book clubs or discussion groups, are small groups of students that meet together to discuss a piece of literature. The purpose is to promote an in depth discussion of what they have read leading to a deeper understanding. It also gives students an opportunity to learn from one another.
First, start simple. Literature circles include the following components:
Don't try to do it all with the first book. Keep adding the components in one at a time as you and your students can handle them.
Start with the reading component because learning to discuss a book with purpose is difficult. Have students have a bookmark with the following prompts:
These prompts are from, "Getting Started with Literature Circles"
by Katherine L. Schlick Noe and Nancy J. Johnson. Begin with the whole class
using these prompts to respond to the book being read aloud. That way everyone
practices together.
REMEMBER...The strength of Literature Circles is in student choice. The goal
is to create "lifetime readers, not school time readers."