READING CIRCLES Collaborative reading & work project

GENERAL AIMS OF THIS PROJECT INDIVIDUAL AIMS:  To read the book and fully understand it while you work on your individual tasks. COLLABORATIVE AIMS:  To Communicate effectively  To Comment on  To connect  To ask  To discuss  To evaluate

GROUPS We are going to create different groups.  Each group is going to have 4 members.  Each member of the group is going to have a different role.

ROLES  The discussion leader  The summarizer  The word master and culture collector  The passage person

What is the job of each role? The Discussion Leader has to:  Ask questions to start the Reading Circle discussion.  Make sure everyone speaks and joins the discussion.  Guide or lead the discussion and keep it going.

The Word Master & Culture Collector has to :  Look for differences and similarities between his/her own culture or other stories he/she has read and the culture in the story and his /her personal or close experiences.  Tell the group about the connections and ask them questions about any other cultural points in the story.  Look for words or short phrases that are new or difficult to understand or that are important in the story.  Explain the meanings of these words in simple English to the group.

The Passage Person has to:  Find important, interesting or difficult passages.  Make notes about the (two or three) passages that are important for the plot or that explain the characters or that have very interesting or powerful language.  Read each passage to the group.  Ask the group one or two questions about each passage.

ORGANIZATION  Each group has 4 different members with a different role.  The students with the same role work together.  Once they finish their work together they go back to the main group to discuss, share and comment their information.

ORGANIZATION – STEP 0- DISCUSSION LEADER SUMMARIZER WORD MASTER + CULTURE COLLECTOR PASSAGE PERSON GROUP 1GROUP 2GROUP 3 DISCUSSION LEADER SUMMARIZER WORD MASTER + CULTURE COLLECTOR PASSAGE PERSON DISCUSSION LEADER SUMMARIZER WORD MASTER + CULTURE COLLECTOR PASSAGE PERSON

ORGANIZATION – STEP 1 – Groups with the same roles DISCUSSION LEADERS (from all the groups) SUMMARIZERS (from all the groups) WORD MASTERS + CULTURE COLLECTORS (from all the groups) PASSAGE PERSONS (from all the groups)

Go back to your ORIGINAL GROUP: discuss, share and comment your information. ORGANIZATION STEP 2 FILL IN THE WORKSHEET TO GATHER INFORMATION STEP 3

ORGANIZATION – STEP 4- Fill in the sum-up worksheet with the most relevant aspects of the chapter/story: The plot pyramid The theme The time and place The analysis of characters The cultural information and connections The language ALL THE GROUPS WORK TOGETHER

ORGANIZATION – STEP 5 - Final project: Group project: Each group creates a specific project with the most relevant information. Individual project: Write texts about different aspects of the story to be published on the school web page.

ORGANIZATION – Self-evaluation + evaluation of other people’s work and attitudes.