Using Literature Circles in the Classroom

"You are the driver of your own learning."

I once heard a fellow educator and friend talk about how she shared this analogy with her students, and I felt inspired to do the same. The other day, I posted this quote on the board and asked my students to journal about what they think it meant. Many of them came up with "you are the one in control of your learning," which great and true... but I wanted them to think about it DEEPER, so I helped explain what I meant to them.

When you are the passenger in a car, you don't necessarily pay attention to where the driver is going, especially if they've driven there before and know the path well. You might have a general idea of the towns you pass through and where you end up, but you most likely wouldn't be able to drive the course yourself alone next time or take the exact route to get there.

The same is true for the education of our students. When they are sitting in the class, listening to you teach and hearing their classmates participate, they are acting as a passenger. They might pick up on some things here and there, but they won't learn the material and challenge their thinking as well as they would if they were the ones actively participating -- or "driving." And isn't that the goal of every class? To get students to the point where they can do things for themselves?

I had this in mind when I decided to do literature circles with my juniors for their last unit. Book groups is something I always go back and forth contemplating about, fearing that the "hands off" teaching won't get as planned if students aren't motivated in their groups. But I decided that it was time for me to pass the torch and encourage my students to become their own teacher - because after all, we know students learn best by DOING, right?

I knew I wanted them to practice their communication skills and heighten their responsibility by working in a group with peers where they had to make and abide by their own rules and schedules. I explained that the purpose of this unit was for them to show they are able to propel conversations, set expectations, and have rich discussion amongst their group members. I also wanted to inspire them to find the joy in reading again and let them practice the skills and standards they've been learning through a book they got to choose.

So I decided to compile different books for them and conducted a book tasting (I called it speed dating their books). I didn't necessarily concern myself with reading level or "value" in the texts - I mainly wanted a variety of genres from different time periods for them to peruse because I know that standards can be taught with any texts, not just the classics!

In the end, I had two groups choose And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie and two groups choose Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, both of which I had never read. However, this didn't really matter. I let the groups know I was counting on them to fill me in, and having most of the reading done in class helped confirm they were ACTUALLY reading. Plus, it was easy to see who was keeping up based on their discussions.

Once their books were chosen, I explained the roles to them: Element Aficionado, Quote Connoisseur, Structure Seeker, Theme Queen, and Language Liaison. My junior male students really got a kick out of being the Theme Queen :)

From there, I set them off on their own. They created their group norms, made their reading schedules, assigned roles, and spent the class periods reading and discussing their books! Their only requirements were that they had to be each role at least once throughout the unit and that they needed to complete a TQE (thoughts, questions, epiphany) chart each day they discussed. Read more about the TQE model here.

Each student got a Student Workbook to complete throughout the unit, which made the discussions flow more easily. Some students struggle with being asked to simply "discuss," so the roles and questions in the packet helped guide their discussions. It also made it easy for me to step in and say something like "Hey, Structure Seeker, tell me what you noticed about how the story was laid out" or "Theme Queen, what new evidence did you find to support the theme we discussed last time?"

As a teacher, it was really hard for me to take a hands off approach, but it was so fun hearing the students discuss their books, especially the mystery novel! Brave New World also inspired some great discussion about whether or not it should be a "banned book." I had multiple students tell me that for the first time, they were able to get LOST in the book and that they were EXCITED to read! I loved chatting with the different groups throughout the week and hearing their enthusiasm.

If you want a copy of the student workbook I made, you can find in on my TPT Store HERE. The book comes with a title page, outline of unit standards, role descriptions, reading schedule, group norm page, pages for each role to be completed, and TQE charts for each day.

Have you tried Lit Circles in your classroom?? Tell me your favorite methods to use below!

Until next time,

Paige