Due 3/02/07: Final Lit Circle Reflection
In no less than ten (10) sentences, please reflect on your overall literature circle/small group activities. What did you find worked best in your groups? Did you prefer one style of literature circle-based techniques over the others? Do you understand the difference in actual literature circles vs. small group discussions about literature? Now that you've experienced a "full on" lit circle, do you see how it is different than the other ways we've been doing them? How do you think you can use them most effectively in your classrooms? Were you able to adequately explore your YA texts within the LC format? What questions do you still have about literature circles?
Reiteration: to get credit for this assignment, you must write no less than ten (10) sentences by Friday, March 2.
posted by Bucky C. @ 8:33 AM
12 comments
12 Comments:
I think this was the best LC yet. What I liked most about it was that you had customized it so that each membet of the group knew exactly what to do. That helped me a lot, because if I don't know exactly what to do, more often than not I will cut corners. Just being honest! I really like LCs and wish that my high school teachers had done them. Even though I love literature, most of our assignments were boring. My teachers would say, "Read this book." Then we'd do a couple of vocab worksheets, then we'd have a test. Granted, there was a little class discussion, but not enough. And our teachers always told us what to read. We never picked. And MOST of us thought that the books that the teachers were picking sucked. LCs rock, I'll definitwly use them in my class!
I believe LC's are a brilliant idea. Properly structured and managed, each child is included and assigned an important task in order to complete the circle. It also gives some children a better chance to participate in discussions where they otherwise may not. In a traditional classroom situation, it is intimidating to speak out in front of 25-30 other people, but in smaller groups, these children could fourish. Also, to put the power of choice into the students' hands gives them a sense of freedom which, more often than not, produces more positive results.
To me, it is almost impossible to fully understand a text without having some feedback or discussion with someone else, hearing others' opinions and theories about the lit. I had just such an experience myself within our circle. It helped me with connecting text-to-text. It brings to full circle the contemporary YA lit. to the canons, which I still believe is so very important to be familiar with.
In all, LC's are a great experience. I am trying to start one myself with a few of my friends. I hope that it will spread throughout the community. It is advantageous for adults to be familiar with LC's so they know and can understand what their children are experiencing in the classroom.
I believe that yesterday's literature circle went really well. I enjoyed having to read the material in class. We KNEW that everyone had read what was supposed to be read. Everyone felt that their part was important because no one had the same specific role. I also like the idea of specialized roles how you did in class. I think this would be better to use with younger students especially, since they need more structure. Though, it could be used with older students as well.
Overall I probably enjoyed the literature cirlce on Speak. Everyone had SO MUCH to say about Speak and I feel that I got the most out of it. I like literature cirlces more when compared to small group discussion. Someone may be shy and not say much in class, but they are pretty much guaranteed to talk in a circle because their grade lies on that. Also it is way easier to open up in front of a smaller group, because the judgment is less. Everyone can express what they think and feel about a piece of literature in the LCs.
The FULL LC is def. very different than the ones we have been experiencing previously! I enjoyed it...but like you said, in other instances, as teachers, we would def have to be aware of time and ability of others so that we can stay on task as a group. Choosing how much to read at a time is very important.
I think LCs should be used in classrooms. I really look forward to using them in the future. I think the way we experienced them this semester has opened up good discussion. This is a good way to get all of your students engaged!
I do not prefer one style of literature circle group over another. They both proved successful in our group, however, for children as well as teens, I feel that reading assigned material in class is better. This guarantees that each child will actually read the book. Off topic, but I think of children I know who have to go home to dysfunctional families and I can see how that would interfere with them concentrating on reading. In class, everyone has equal opportunity.
Small group discussion seems more like a "talk group" rather than a "think & work" group. Kids get to really activate their learning in LC's.
Structure and planning is the way to effective lit. circles.
I was able to to adequately explore YA texts within my group. I liked hearing other classmates views.
I liked the way that the Literature Circles went on Monday. Our group went back to the way we did it on our second time, which was choosing three different roles. I think that by doing that we got a wide variety of the roles covered. If I ever do end up teaching anybody besides very young elementary students, I will most definitely use literature circles, because they bring something to the table that most class discussions will not. The students will most likely voice all of their thoughts about the book, which can help the other students learn from their ideas and vice-versa. Older elementary students could even benefit from literature circles, because if the students who are afraid of reading see that other students actually enjoyed the book, it might push them to read more and to not be afraid of enjoying themselves.
Now for the full literature circle, where we read the excerpt in class and did the work for that, I think it has its place in class. The only thing is the time thing, but it could almost be used as a reading comprehension analysis to see where most of your students are in their reading (you could do it without the students really knowing that’s what you’re looking for). But, I like the LC’s where the students could pick out how much of their chapter book they will read and where they can do their roles as homework. It’s a good system, and I’m glad we had a chance to do it ourselves so we could see how they really work.
The full-blown literature circle worked well. We were each given a task to complete after reading of the assigned text. With the reading being a class-time assignment, everyone in the group read the material. There was no one who did not complete the reading. We each had a different way that we interpreted the reading, and each interpretation was interesting. Literature circles should be a major part of high school english classes. Like Shannon mentioned in her blog, the shy students who do not like to speak in front of a large class will usually open up and talk when it is just four to five people in the group. Literature circles also help the students in the group to learn about certain things in the reading that they may have missed when reading. All of the group members have different ideas and topics that they bring out from the reading. When they talk about them in the circles, it allows the whole reading to come together. Literature circles will definitely be used in my classroom!
Monday’s literature circle went really great. What I liked most about the literature circle is that we were all organized and each person had a role within the group. Having different roles is a great opportunity for the group to discuss more about the book. I really like having literature circles, because it is a good way to discuss what we have read. LC helps each student get involved in the discussion. I prefer reading the material outside of class and then during class discuss what we have read and what roles we took. Being able to read the material outside of class and then coming to class and discussing it helps me have more time to prepare. I also liked reading the material in class and discussing it among our LC. Even though it is not much time to prepare it is a good way to know that everyone has read it and know what we will be talking about. Overall, I really enjoy having LC. It is a great experience for each student to take on responsibility and to come together and discuss what they have read.
I really enjoyed the last literature circle the most because everyone read the same reading and completed it. There were not any doubt about who had or had not done the assignment. Everyone participated and made a contribution instead of one person taking full contol of all conversation. I think that literature circles will be a great tool in the classroom. LCs use peer teaching which allows students to compare their understanding with that of their peers. This was a positive group exeperience where as most of the group experience that I have had throughout my life has been negative. By finally having a positive example I will be more likely to use LCs in my classroom. I now believe that with the proper preparation I will be able use LCs to benefit my students.
I think that the both ways of doing Literature Circles were by far very productive. I personally like being able to do the work at home first and then bring it in to class. But when I start teaching literature circles I will use both methods. A good thing about doing them in class is that the group can help each other if one of the members has a question. I think this is a way to keep the students from being bored in class and provides a good technique to boosting students intelligence. I wished my teachers in high school would of had me do literature circles. I think that they should be done at least three times a week. When doing them a couple times a week I will have the students change roles and do short stories in class and have group books for home reading. I will also give the students a time to tell me when what books they might be interested in reading and I will try to incorporate the books they liked as much as possible. I loved doing literature circles. I will definitely use them in my classroom.
I believed having preassigned roles BEFORE we read the text worked best. We were able to read for that role and find significant textual evidence to complete our assignment. I definetly prefer having a named group leader in order to keep our discussions focused. I believe these two elements are what make literature cirlces different from small group discussion. Literature circles are much more specific and goal oriented. The full literature cirlce (reading an unknown text in the group) helps flush out other benefits to the group such as different POV, trends in group member responses, and the doubt a student read the text.
I believe I could best utlize these groups in my classroom would be to have options for the student. Have six to eight copies of books and allow a group to decide which text they would like to read. I say this emphasizing all the material we read in the Ericson text about choice and young readers. Sometimes our literature cirlces were too short for me to really focus on the literary value of the YA texts (things such as themes and connections). However, they were much more effective than open, unorganized, group discussion.
Our group seemed to enjoy and appreciate the lit circles more when we read the passage at home and then chose our roles during class; and acted out those roles in the given time. This type of organization seemed to help us help each other more; because we were able to help each other understand the passage better. The more organized lit circle seemed to be more useful and helped to get deeper into the passage than a less role based small group. The main difference that I noticed when participating in the “full on” lit circle as opposed to the beginning versions of the lit circle; was the organized roles that each participant took, it helped when the roles overlapped just a little. Using lit circles in a classroom can/will provide ample opportunity for students to learn more that just the surface meanings in a story. There are many different ways to organize Lit circles one is for the students to read outside class, another is for the students to read as a small group, and still another is to have the passage read by the class out loud. No matter how the passage is read whether at home or during SSR the use of lit circles increase the knowledge that the students learn. By having the lit circles discuss and act out the lit circle roles the kids will learn not just what they got out of the passage but also what their group members individually got out of it, expanding their understanding 10 fold. I think that in one class period we did not get ample opportunities to explore the ya texts…however I do believe that for the purposes that the texts were assigned; yes, we did. I believe that the lit circles were adequately taught and are a great resource for teaching reading and individual texts.
I think the LC circles was a great way to enhance the discussion area when it came to the book. I thought the LC circle was best performed when the entire group read and pick out passages to explain to the group. I thought LC circle great because i am very shy to speak in front of the entire class, and LC circles provided me a chance to hold book talks with my fellow classmates. I do not pefer another other techniques over LC Circles because i found that LC Circles created a sense of communication ammong fellow classmates. i understand the differences between actual literature and small group discussions. i would use the LC circles in the classrooms because it would give students a chance to express their thoughts about the reading and not be ashamed. but overrall the LC circle was a great learning tool for me.
Post a Comment
<< Home