The grade 3 students will shortly begin a new reading activity called Literature Circles. In literature circles, small groups of students gather together to discuss a piece of literature in depth. The discussion is guided by students' response to what they have read. You may hear talk about events and characters in the book, the author's craft, or personal experiences related to the story. Literature circles provide a way for students to engage in critical thinking and reflection as they read, discuss, and respond to books. Collaboration is at the heart of this approach. Students reshape and add onto their understanding as they construct meaning with other readers. Finally, literature circles guide students to deeper understanding of what they read through structured discussion and extended written and artistic response.
Perhaps the easiest way to understand what literature circles are is to examine what they are not:
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Literature Circles are . . .
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Literature Circles are not . . .
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| Reader response centered | Teacher and text centered |
| Part of a balanced literacy program | The entire reading curriculum |
| Groups formed by book choice | Teacher-assigned groups formed solely by ability |
| Structured for student independence, responsibility, and ownership | Unstructured, uncontrolled "talk time" without accountability |
| Guided primarily by student insights and questions | Guided primarily by teacher- or curriculum-based questions |
| Intended as a context in which to apply reading and writing skills | Intended as a place to do skills work |
| Flexible and fluid; never look the same twice | Tied to a prescriptive "recipe"
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Students have already chosen the book that they would like to read for our first Literature Circle and are grouped accordingly. There will be four students reading the same book and they will meet weekly to discuss the assigned reading (typically a few chapters ) for that week. They will each have a different role to prepare for before the meeting and will have a turn doing each job before the book is done. The roles are Ironman- the Illustrator; Supergirl- the Questioner; Captain America- the Connector; Spiderman-the Summarizer; and Wonder Woman- the Word Wizard. We have practiced these roles over the past week, and I am sure your child can explain them in more detail to you. It is my intention that all reading and preparation work will be done in class, however if a student is absent I may send either the reading and/or preparation work home for them to complete so that they will be ready for their next Literature Circle meeting.
I would also like to thank everyone for your support organizing pictures and costumes for our Wax Museum Biography event! I was so proud of all of the grade 3 students enthusiasm for this project. The grade 2s who provided us with an audience learned a lot about the subjects, and are all eager for their turn to be part of a Wax Museum next year!
