Mainely Middle
Journal of the Maine Association for Middle
Level Education
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2000/2001 |
Sharing Adventures in Literature Circles
Getting a StartIt started last year when several of us were taking an in-district graduate literacy class and needed a focus topic. We decided to address an important problem we faced every day - reading apathy. Although we taught different grade levels from fourth through eighth grade, we were all concerned that our students seemed uninterested in reading the books assigned for class and that they had difficulty responding to basic comprehension questions. We shared our feelings that classroom discussions tended to involve (and not involve) the same individuals, which meant that all voices were not being heard. Clayton Holmes, a middle level teacher at Holbrook Middle School, shared his excitement about using literature circles in his classroom. He said literature circles helped keep his students accountable for their reading. He found literature circle groups provided avenues for verbalizing opinions and interpretations and opportunities for sharing misunderstandings about content and vocabulary. Some of us were skeptical because we had tried literature circles before, with varying degrees of success. Clayton said he, too, had experienced his own ups and downs and shared an excerpt from his 1995 teaching diary: As we began the literature circles, teams scattered to different areas of the classroom. Chaos reigned supreme for about thirty minutes. I attempted to make some notes. One group was making weird noises into the tape recorder. One group was arguing with the team leader as to who would ask the first question. Another group was laughing hysterically about last night's soccer game. When would someone begin to talk about the book? One group did finally make an attempt to ask if anyone liked the book. One boy said The Island of the Blue Dolphin was stupid. A girl retorted that she like the book - at least the argument was about the book! Some of us had reservations when Clayton proposed that we take a closer look at the problem of student apathy by implementing, critiquing and adapting the literature circle format in our own classrooms. But, knowing we had each other's support, we decided to journey forth. We all read Literature Circles (Daniels, 1994) and found it was instrumental in guiding our conversations.
Adapting Literature CirclesOne of our course requirements was to produce a product that would be of value to other teachers in the district, so we decided to develop a resource notebook called Sharing Adventures in Literature Circles. Each of us took a different approach and had different experiences with literature circles as they played out in our classrooms. Cynthia Frey tied literature circles to Maine's Learning Results (Fig. 1). We picked up a literature assessment and scoring guide used by colleagues, Chris Reardon, Terry Holyoke and Suzy Hagemeyer (Fig. 2.1 & 2.2). We made up some record keeping forms such as a role Assignment Record (Fig. 3), a Literature Circles Discussion Director Record (Fig. 4), and a mental checklist asking Did Your Group... (Fig. 5). All of our forms, including revised role sheets and personal and group rubrics, were placed in group folders with a package of "stickies" for group members to use to mark pages and make comments. We all found that students who do not generally write well can communicate successfully in the non-linguistic role of "Artful Artist." We found the final literature presentations accommodated our students' various learning styles as they expressed their interpretations of the text through visual and performing arts. Here's how Trisha summarizes her experiences throughout the semester: Before our class group embarked on our project, I had already begun using what I thought were literature circles at the beginning of the school year. I offered 2-3 reading choices which I had pre-selected. We had no designated role sheets, but I did have students respond daily on what I called an S.O.S. sheet (summary, opinion and support). Students met and discussed readings but I found that often students were in different places depending on their personal drive to read and lack of interest altogether on the other end of the spectrum. As I began reading about how Harvey Daniels organized literature circles, I realized it wouldn't hurt to give this format, with the role sheets, a try. The role sheets I use have been adapted by Clayton Holmes (discussion director, conscious connector, word wizard, passage picker, and artful artist) to allow students from various learning styles to be successful. Students rotate roles after each meeting, which allows each student to connect with the literature in a different way. The students are also responsible for assigning their own reading, monitoring their group, and being responsible for constructing their own meaning from the literature. I have been really happy with how my students are responding to the literature and making connections to their own lives. I try to balance my program to meet and challenge all of my students' learning styles. A major advantage to having students control and pace their own reading is that it allows me, as the teacher, to do more "kidwatching," observation and documentation. This will allow me to make a more authentic assessment of students' reading comprehension." Students seem to appreciate both the social and academic advantages of sharing their reading in literature circles. One student said: "I like the literature circles! They're fun and enjoyable... You can put your own point of view on them and the other people in your group help you understand a part that maybe you didn't understand - or maybe something else."
Where Do We Go From Here?We said we would continue to adapt our use of literature circles in our classrooms and to improve role sheets this year. Maddy Roberts, for example, worked with our district literacy coordinator, Karen Johnson to devise a teacher observation sheet for use while watching literature circles in action. (Fig. 6) We're proud of the adaptations that have let us make literature circles our own. We hope our project will inspire our colleagues.
Research BackgroundDaniels (1994) talks about the origin of literature circles in his book. He says he coined the term literature circles after he joined two ideas, independent reading and collaborative learning. Independent reading has long been a foundation of reading success and, more recently, success in writing. Collaborative learning, Daniels says, is a form of student inquiry, which is different from cooperative learning, which is teacher-directed. According to Daniels, the "ancestors" of literature circles include John Dewey, learning-by-doing; Carl Rogers, father of humanistic education and James Moffett, a strong champion of the use of literature in school programs. Models provided by pioneers David and Roger Johnson and William Glasser inspired Daniels as he developed his ideas about collaborative learning. A "new old idea," literature circles are based partly upon work of others, notably Harste, Short & Burke (1988). Heterogeneous grouping, the foundation for literature circles, is supported by the work of Richard Allington, Jeannie Oakes, Anne Wheelock and George Wood who, according to Daniels (1994), documented the fact that ability grouping "harms the achievement of kids in low and middle groups while providing few, if any, benefits for the kids in top groups" (p. 41).
Bibliography and Resourses Allington, R. (May, 1983). The reading instruction provided readers of differing reading abilities. Elementary school journal. |