1. Lit Circle Unit The How-to’s and the Whyfore’s

2. What is a Lit Circle A lit circle is a small group of people dedicated to one book and the complete mastery of all ideas and concepts within All group members read the same book and when the group gets together to discuss it, they each approach it from a different angle which hopefully gives a complete picture

3. Different Angles? There are different jobs within each lit circle meeting; each person has a different set of responsibilities (and a fancy title) – Artistic Adventurer – Character Connector – Discussion Director – Passage Professor – Senor Summarizer – The Big Idea

4. Meetings Your group will establish a reading schedule after I give you the finish date There will be 8 meetings about the book, so you need a schedule that has 8 different reading assignments – Ex: by meeting 1, read through page 50. By meeting 2, read through page 79…

5. Meetings Once you have your reading schedule, you need to assign a job schedule The jobs rotate with each meeting There are six jobs and 8 meetings, but you will only need the jobs for the first 6… – Figure it out

6. Artistic Adventurer Your job is to draw some kind of picture or thinking map related to the selection. You can draw a sketch, cartoon, diagram, or any kind of graphic organizer. You can illustrate something that is discussed specifically in the book or something that the reading reminded you of, or a picture that conveys any idea or feeling you got from the reading. Make your illustration on another sheet of paper and attach it to this one before handing in this assignment. Presentation Plan: Show your illustration without comment to others in the group. One at a time, the group members get to speculate on what your picture means, to connect the drawing to their own ideas about the reading. After everyone has had a say, you get the last word: tell them what your picture means, where it came from, or what it represents to you.

7. Character Connector

8. Discussion Director Discussion DIRECTOR: Your job is to keep the discussion going, to make sure there are not silences, not gaps in the conversation. You should come to the meeting with at least five "thinking" questions to ask in case the conversation slows down. These "thinking" questions should be designed to get people in your group thinking about issues and topics in your reading. They should not be "recall" questions that ask for facts from the book. You are also in charge of keeping the discussion focused so that things don't wander too far from the main topic, which is the book. Question #1 ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________ Is this a thinking question or a remembering question?___________ What connections do you anticipate your group members will make as a result of this question? _______________________________________________________________________

9. Passage Professor

10. Senor Summarizer Your job is to prepare a brief summary of today’s reading. The other members of the group will be counting on you to give a quick statement that conveys the main points of the story and highlights of today’s reading assignment. Don’t focus on the details; state the main ideas and events to remember. Additionally, you are to write five questions about the reading.

11. The Big Idea Your job here is to ask, “What’s the big idea?” How does what you have read relate to the world in general? What is the point the author was trying to make? After you read, you need to come up at least five connections between the text and something else in the world. These connections can be from this text to another text, text to the world, or text to self. What similarities do you see between characters, themes, plots, settings, experiences, emotions, motivations, etc…? Choose five connections that you made, write down the location from the text and the explanation of how it relates.

12. Then What? When you arrive to class, your worksheet will be filled out, as will the worksheets of every member of your group You will have time to discuss your book and the things you have written down. The Discussion Director for the day is the boss and makes sure that the conversation is going in the direction it needs to