Literature Circles in High School

Harvey Daniels inspired a multitude of teachers in the early 90s with his literature circle strategies. Click here to see all of Daniels' available books.

Over the last 11 years, I have experimented with literature circles in my middle school and high school English classes and adapted strategies as I learned more about my students, about teaching, and about literature circles. From 1999-2001, I presented several regional and national workshops on literature circles. Here is a link to the L-O-N-G handout from that workshop. It is filled with writing ideas to use as extensions for literature circles.

Since 2002, I have been very successfully using Jim Burke's adaptations of the literature circle role sheets found in his book THE ENGLISH TEACHER'S COMPANION . Burke also has an excellent and comprehensive web site with the actual lit circle role sheets available online. Click here to visit it

Cindy Adams
Capstone Writing Project, June 2001
Mobile Bay Writing Project, May 2000

"Readers must analyze and think, producing their own understanding, not simply remember information provided by teacher or textbook." --Robert E. Probst, 1994, English Journal

"Writing is both a process of doing critical thinking and a product communicating the results of critical thinking." --John Bean, 1996, Engaging Ideas

q Students will learn how texts operate, how they shape our thought and manipulate our emotions

q Students will learn about cultures and societies, their varying concepts of the "good life," of love and hate, justice and revenge, good and evil, and other significant issues of human experience

q Students should learn about the processes by which they make meaning out of literary texts

q Students will effectively use a variety of writing strategies to encourage reading comprehension, critical thinking, and communicate their understanding of texts to others

ü Invite them to respond to the text through writing and discussion and graphic representations

ü Look back to other texts, discussions, and writing and forward to what students might

How To Set Up Literature Circles

Literature Circles work well ANY time of the year. Honestly, though, I use them the last six weeks of school. The students feel confident of the "safety" of the classroom environment as a place for writing and reading analysis by then. Students and teachers are ready for a change of pace at that point in the school year.

Offering literature circles at this point helps me, as a professional, to "fill-in-the-blanks" for college preparatory high school students. Because of potential censorship issues, a lot of books are unofficially "off limits" for use as whole class books. Literature circles allow small groups of students to self-select books such as Grapes of Wrath and A Lesson before Dying, get parent permission to read them, and then set off to explore the more contemporary or mature books that otherwise never grace a classroom setting where a teacher is close by to help with questions and interpretations.

Literature Circles can be formed by students themselves agreeing upon a book to read, but teacher-chosen groups prevent problems such as the students no one wants in their group getting excluded, off-task behavior, and groups formed with all high or all low ability students.

I ask students to give me the names of several students (both male and female) in the class that they would work well with. I look these over and form groups so that everyone has at least one person they asked for. It takes time, but makes for stronger groups.

Before announcing the groups, I give book talks to arouse interest in the titles I've chosen. I ask everyone to list their 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choice. Then I announce the group members and ask them to compare their choices with others in the group and come to an agreement. I usually offer 2 more choices than the number of literature circles I am planning to form. If I am planning for 5 literature circles, I usually offer 7 books in book talks.

Offer books that have a strong plot, several characters, imagery and figurative language, strong vocabulary words, a strong climax, and at least one theme.

If I have a mixed group of abilities on the middle school or high school level, I always offer at least one Young Adult fiction selection as a choice even though my school is heavily oriented towards "classics." The shorter length and simpler plot line helps encourage reluctant and slower readers.

Advance preparation is crucial! Literature circles are most successful when students have been prepared for the various roles and the meeting procedures. Prior to the first meeting of the groups, you will want to go over:

Prior to starting the novels, my classes practice with short stories or picture books. The entire class reads the story, then they practice all of the roles we'll be using. We discuss various questions and passages the students find, then write about them in the journals. It may take several short stories before the class feels comfortable with the system.

It is beneficial to practice the skills of summarizing chapters, writing fat (higher-order level) questions, and choosing passages in a text BEFORE I start a rotation of literature circles. To practice these skills, the entire class reads the same novel. A common reading helps the less able students hear good questions and passages that stronger students have come up with. In addition, the more summarizing students do, the better summarizers they become.

The more organization a teacher puts into the program, the better the literature circles run. I do the following:

¨ provide a two pocket folder with brads for each group, labeled with the title of the book

¨ provide a sheet for role assignments, which students fill out to show the rotating roles

¨ provide a sheet of reading assignments for particular days. I usually allow each group to decide on the number of pages to be read for each class session, but I give the class a (tentative) date by which I want the entire novel completed. This helps all the groups to finish about the same time.

¨ if you choose the vocabulary words for each segment of reading, provide a list of these for each folder

¨ provide a Daily Group Record Sheet to each group for self-evaluation of the roup members

¨ each folder usually contains several writing ideas. Literature circle members may choose from the list. Some choices will be individual; some will need the cooperation of the entire group. These are due the last day of the unit.

¨ you may want to include a listing of possible journal topics or assignments to give variety to the journal writing

Role and Page Assignments

Discussion Director: _________________________ Passage Master: ______________________

Discussion Director

Name: ______________________________________ Book: _________________________

Assignment: page ________ to page ________ Literature Circle's Name: _____________

Your job is to develop a list of questions that your group can discuss about this part of the novel. Your questions should be ones which require thought and get everyone talking and sharing their opinions and reactions. The best discussion questions come from your own thoughts, feelings, and concerns as you read. Do NOT write questions that call for a simple "yes" or "no" answer or a factual detail !

ü Ask for each member of your group to state their comment/questions about this section of the novel. Lead your

ü After discussion is completed, assign roles for your next reading and make sure everyone gets a new role sheet,

ü Call the teacher over. Be ready to discuss items on the Group Record sheet.

1. __________________________________________________________________________

2. _________________________________________________________________________

3. __________________________________________________________________________

4. __________________________________________________________________________

5. __________________________________________________________________________

6. __________________________________________________________________________

What did you think about......? (name a specific event, action, or character's action)

What do you think will happen......? (ask for predictions of events and characters' actions)

Passage Master

Name: ______________________________________ Book: _________________________

Assignment: page ________ to page ________ Literature Circle's Name: _____________

Locate 3 passages of the story that your group should reread, discuss, and think about.

ü Passages should be important things for everyone to notice, remember, or think about.

ü Choose a variety of passages, not all the same type--here are suggestions:

· descriptive writing: figurative language, strong verbs, etc. (identify literary devices)

1. Make sure everyone opens to the right page and help them find where the passage begins.

2. Either read it aloud yourself, have everyone read it silently, or ask someone to read it.

3. Tell your reasons for selecting each passage; ask for comments. Do they agree with your choices?

Page _______ Paragraph(s) ______ The first 3 words of the paragraph are: _________________________________

An interpretation that can be made from another passage, found on Page _________, Paragraph _______ is

In today's reading, a tie-in to my experience and/or knowledge appears on Page _________, Paragraph ______ and is

Summarizer

Name: ______________________________________ Book: _________________________

Assignment: page ________ to page ________ Literature Circle's Name: _____________

Your job is to prepare a brief summary of today's reading. The other members of your group will be counting on you to give a summary that conveys the key points, the main highlights of today's reading assignment. It is a good idea to jot down the main events on scratch paper before you complete this form. Be sure to write your summary in complete sentences !

When you have finished your summary, give this section a short title--something that captures the main idea.

My Title for the Section: _______________________________________________________________________

Summary:__________________________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________(finish on back of sheet if necessary)----------->

My comment or question about this part of the book is: ____________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

My group agreed that my summary was complete and accurate _______yes ________ no (if no, add what is missing on the back of the sheet)

Word Reporter

Name: ______________________________________ Book: _________________________

Assignment: page ________ to page ________ Literature Circle's Name: _____________

Your job is to look up definitions to the words you are given, (or find unknown words on your own if no vocabulary list is provided), and create an excellent sentence using each.

1. Make sure everyone in your group copies down each word and definition on their vocabulary sheet

1. Word: _____________________________________ Page _________ Paragraph ________

Sentence from the book: ____________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

The definition is: : ____________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

My excellent sentence is: : ____________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. Word: _____________________________________ Page _________ Paragraph ________

Sentence from the book: ____________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

The definition is: : ____________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

My excellent sentence is: : ____________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

3. Word: _____________________________________ Page _________ Paragraph ________