Professional Development October 27th 2010 Roosevelt S.T.A.Y.

Define Literature Circles Discuss and examine some key roles of Literature Circles Participate in a mini version of Literature Circles in an activity Participate in just desserts

Small groups of students gather together to discuss a piece of literature in depth. Discussion is guided by students’ response to what they have read. Literature Circles provide a way for students to engage in critical thinking and reflection as they read, discuss, and respond to books. Literature Circles guide students to deeper understanding of what they read through structured discussion and extended written response.

Literature circles are… Reader response centered Groups formed by book choice Structured for student independence, responsibility, and ownership Guided primarily by student insights and questions Intended as a context in which to apply reading and writing skills Flexible and fluid; never look the same twice Teacher and text centered The entire reading curriculum Teacher-assigned groups solely by ability Unstructured, uncontrolled “talk time” without accountability Guided primarily by teacher-or curriculum based questions Intended as a place to do skills work Tied to a prescriptive “recipe” Literature circles are not…

It offers a change of pace. Students tend to see these activities as enjoyable. The selection of the roles in the group give the teacher the chance to draw attention to particular skill roles within the discipline. Students have the opportunity to practice one specific skill at a time. The teacher is able to remove him/herself out of the center of discussion, at least temporarily. Since there is a lot of student interaction over the text before there is any explicit teacher commentary on the text, the teacher gets a much clearer picture of how the students are reading and thinking about the text. It’s a great opportunity to observe and listen, and gives the teacher useful information to help shape the planning of subsequent lessons. Can even be used in disciplines outside of the Language Arts.

Discussion Director-creates questions to increase comprehension Vocabulary Enricher-clarifies word meanings and pronunciations Literary Luminary-Examines figurative language, parts of speech, and vivid descriptions Real World Connector- Examines situations in the text, writes, and explains how they connect to the real world Summary Master- Writes a 1-2 paragraph summary for each chapter. Illustrator- Draws pictures or creates a chart of major events or of major characters doing something that is relevant to the plot/ main idea.

By the end of the class, unit, etc., students will: Discuss, define, and explore unfamiliar words Predict text events using previous knowledge and details in the text Use evidence in text to verify predictions. Ask relevant and focused questions to clarify understanding Respond to questions and discussion with relevant and focused comments Paraphrase and summarize information from text Identify and analyze literary elements in text

1. Get into groups of three. 2. Select a task/ role to complete. 3. As a group, read your short story together. 4. After reading, each person should take the allotted time to complete the task. 5. After teacher has called time, be prepared to present your findings first your group and then to the whole class. 6. Exit Ticket-Complete the self-reflection sheet.