Literature Circles Process

The Harvey Daniels book has one example of literature circles that are used in the college environment, so I skipped ahead to that section to find an example of how I might use lit. circles in my courses at CNM (a local community college).

Marline Pearson uses lit. circles in her criminology courses at Madison Area Technical College. She uses them to give students the opportunity to have student-led discussions about short nonfiction articles. Here are the steps that she outlines (beginning on pg. 211 of Literature Circles: Voice and Choice in Book Clubs & Reading Groups) along with my ideas of how I might adapt this procedure:

1.   Talk to students about the importance of “student-generated as opposed to teacher-directed discussion” (p. 211) [My thoughts: Maybe I can use the idea of showing a video of a lit circle to the class to explain how the process works. I would need to find this resource somewhere or I might need to videotape sessions that I can use in subsequent semesters]

2.   Thoroughly train students on the process of lit circles during one or two class periods

a.     Give them a two-page article to take home to read and explain that during the next class period, students will begin to use the process of lit circles

b.     Pass out master sheets that describe the roles (connection maker, passage picker, discussion director, and illustrator) [My thoughts: How strictly do I need to stick to these roles? Maybe I can use some of the other examples in the book and make a list of ways that students can respond to give them more choices]

c.      Divide the class into two groups; assign one group the role of passage picker and the other group as connection maker

d.     The teacher goes over these two roles, while also assuming the roles of discussion director and illustrator

e.     Ask the passage pickers to choose two passages that they want to discuss (give them time to do this)

f.      Ask the connection makers to make at least two connections that they can share with class (give them time to do this)

g.     Have a whole class discussion by asking volunteers to share things they wrote down – use this to model a lit. circle discussion. Ask students not to be tied to the roles, but to use the things they have prepared in an order that seems natural – to try to have a natural discussion

3.   After the training session, give the students an article and put them in groups. Let the students decide which roles they will take within each group. [My thoughts: I could also use the essays that we have in our textbook; the essays include issue-based pieces, some of which are personal narratives; maybe I can provide more choice this way by allowing students to choose from several essays. Should I have them list their top two choices to make sure that I assign three to four people to each essay?]

4.   The lit. circles will take place during the next class period. Tell them to prepare using their roles. (They will bring in preparation materials to get homework credit.) [My thoughts: Again, maybe I can make the roles more flexible]

5.   Have students fill out a process checker sheet to write down comments about what worked well in the discussion as well as any problems that occurred

6.   Ask students to self-evaluate (rate themselves on their preparation and discussion) [My thoughts: I think self-evaluation would be helpful for my students. It would also help me to identify problems and provide more guidance]

7.   After students turn in their process checker sheets, read and comment back to the students on the sheets

8.   Use some of the students’ comments (anonymously) to start out the next class to talk about issues

Obstacles/Issues: How can I make my literature circles more aesthetic to help students feel that reading can be for enjoyment? I don’t think my students would necessarily choose to read essays and articles for personal enjoyment, so how can I include more student-chosen texts? I am hesitant to include a full-length novel in my courses because we have a common text that we are supposed to use, and I don’t know the rules on whether or not I can include another text. (Small texts seem all right because they are additional sources, and most instructors use supplemental material.) Maybe I should use short stories. That might be more interesting for my students.