learning, living, loving: literature circles
TRANSCRIPT
Learning, Living, Loving: Literature Circles
NCTE Convention Nashville, TennesseeNovember 2006
“Ultimately, the job of any teacher is to disappear, so the student is the one who shines.”
Allen Schoer
Objectives
Discover strategies to help engage students in the literature circle process.
Gain an understanding of how to motivate students through collaboration and the use of book talks.
Develop an appreciation for the use of literature circles as an approach to teach reading, writing, speaking and listening skills and strategies.
Realize the power of literature circles as a means to develop critical responses to literature.
Literature Circles-Piecing It Together
Guiding Principles
Choice – Students have opportunities to make meaningful choices to encourage student ownership and voice.
Responsibility – Students make decisions about their learning and reflect upon those choices.
Expression – Students express their ideas and feelings in a variety of ways and for various audiences.
Community – Students come together to complete activities that are social and cooperative in nature yet allow for an expression of the individual and an understanding of group dynamics.
Methods That Matter: Six Structures for Best Practice Classrooms – Harvey Daniels and Marilyn Bizar
Best Practice Classrooms
Integrative Units – Students “enter, draw upon, operate within, and become knowledgeable about many discipline fields.”
Small Group Activities – Students “practice democracy and have opportunities to work together to identify and solve problems.”
Representing to Learn – Students use writing, drawing, sketching, mapping, drama, movement, song, etc to engage, construct, probe and store knowledge.
Classroom Workshop – Students are immersed in “working laboratories or studios, where genuine knowledge is created, real products are made, and authentic inquiry pursued.”
Authentic Experiences – Students are invited to be part of “significant, meaningful, experiential learning” with “a strong component of self-discovery.”
Reflective Assessment – Students begin to “become self-monitoring, self-regulating individuals who take charge of their own learning, set ambitious goals, monitor their own progress, keep their own records, adjust their efforts, make good decisions, and become part of a collaborative community that grows by means of healthy and measured mutual feedback.”
Methods That Matter: Six Structures for Best Practice Classrooms – Harvey Daniels and Marilyn Bizar
Community – Creating a Community of Learners
Building Background Knowledge
– Group Dynamics– Topic/Theme
Anticipation Guides and Graphic Organizers
Other Texts
– Picture Books– Non-fiction– Short Stories and Novels– Poetry– Pictures– Movie Clips
Choice – Setting the Stage for Book Talks
Collaboration
– Discussing Theme - Focus – Genre
– Developing Learning Outcomes
Choice – Book Talks…
Book Lists
– Building Lists
– Creating Motivation
Developing “The Talk"
Choice – … and Beyond
Grouping
Reading Schedules
Roles
Responsibility – Skills, Strategies and Self Reflection
Reading
– Questioning
– Summarizing
– Connecting (text, self, world)
– Vocabulary (context clues, word choice, discovered words)
– Literary Devices and Stylistic Elements
– Excerpt Analysis
– Developing Interest Through Research
Responsibility – Skills, Strategies and Self Reflection
– Modes
Narrative
Informational
Persuasive
Creative
Writing Concepts
Responsibility – Skills, Strategies and Self Reflection
– Domains
Focus
Content
Organization
Style
Conventions
Writing Concepts
Responsibility – Skills, Strategies and Self Reflection
Formal and Informal Speaking
– Organization
– Eye Communication
– Voice (pace and volume)
– Mannerisms
– Posture and Body Movement
– Facial Expressions
– Lack of Weak Connectors
Responsibility – Skills, Strategies and Self Reflection
Group Dynamics
– Stages of Team Development
Forming
Storming
Norming
Performing
Adjourning
Responsibility – Skills, Strategies and Self Reflection
Group Dynamics
– Managerial Skills Organizing Planning Time management
– Interpersonal Skills Listening Building Trust Conflict Management
Responsibility – Skills, Strategies and Self Reflection
Information Literacy
– Task Definition
– Information Seeking Strategies
– Location and Access
– Use of Information
– Synthesis
– Evaluation
Responsibility – Skills, Strategies and Self Reflection
Reflection
– Self Reflection (content, work ethic, skills)
– Creating a Rubric
– Goal Setting
Expression – Readers, Writers and Researchers
Experimenting with Style
– Moments in Time: Memoir
– Novels in Verse: Poetry
“The role of the writer is to witness the world through writing so that healing and change may take place.” Terry Tempest Williams
Expression – Readers, Writers and Researchers
Critical Response
– Critical Book Review
– It Matters: Critical Issues
Expression – Readers, Writers and Researchers
Call-to-Action
– Social Survival
– Overcoming Obstacles: Tuesdays with Morrie
– Social Injustice
– Crime and Punishment
Resources-Planning and Preparing
Mini-Lessons for Literature Circles – Harvey Daniels and Nancy Steineke
Literature Circles: Voice and Choice in the Student-Centered Classroom – Harvey Daniels
Literature Circles and Response – Bonnie Campbell Hill, Nancy Johnson, and Katherine Schlick-Noe
Creating Classrooms for Authors and Inquirers – Karen Short, Jerome Harste and Carolyn Burke
Building Literacy Through Classroom Discussion – Mary Adler and Eija Rougle
Methods That Matter: Six Structures for Best Practice Classrooms – Harvey Daniels and Marilyn Bizar
Resources-Creating Curiosity and Finding Focus
Engaging Adolescent Learners: A Guide for Content-Area Teachers – Releah Cossett Lent
Partners in Crime – E.K. Hein
Reading and Writing Poetry with Teenagers – Fredric Lown and Judith W. Steinbergh
Stirring Up Justice: Writing and Reading to Change the World – Jessica Singer
Writing a Life: Teaching Memoir to Sharpen Insight, Shape Meaning—and Triumph Over Tests – Katherine Bomer
Notebook Know-How: Strategies for the Writer’s Notebook – Aimee Buckner
Junior Reference– World Almanac– Issues and Controversies
POWER Library– AP Multimedia Archive– EBSCO– Novelist
Contact Information
Allison MackleySeventh Grade [email protected]
Renée OwensEighth Grade [email protected]
Penny [email protected]
Hershey Middle School
500 Homestead Road
Hershey, PA 17033
717-531-2222