BOOK CIRCLES ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES

Discussion Director ***This is the only required role. Job Description: Your job is to develop a list of questions that your group will want to discuss about the reading. Through your questions, you must help people recognize important ideas in the book. You must control the conversation so that everyone has a fair chance to express his or her opinion. Qualifications: Must have leadership abilities. Also must have a good understanding of the book in order to ask questions that will evoke thoughtful discussion. Must have good attendance. Responsibilities: Lead the Book Circle Discussions. Prepare at least six (6) questions from the higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy for each of the Book Circle Discussion Days. Post questions to your Book Circle blog a day prior to each of the Discussion Days. You must make sure that everyone in your group has an opportunity to speak.

Connector Job Description: Your job is to find connections between the book and the real world: students’ personal lives, people your age, events at school or in their community or the news. Another possible source of connections can be within the selection itself or between the current reading and literature they have read previously. Qualifications: Must have leadership abilities. Also must have a good understanding of the book and of currents events in order to make connections between the reading and the real world. Must have good attendance. Responsibilities: Provide and explain at least two (2) relevant connections from the book to the “real world” to share with your Book Circle each Discussion Day. Post connections and explanations to your Book Circle blog a day prior to each of the Discussion Days.

Researcher Job Description: Your job is to dig up some background information on any relevant topic related to your book. This might include: The geography, weather, culture, or history of the book’s setting Pertinent information about the author and other related works Information about the time period portrayed in the book Information on any topics or events that may have influenced the author The history and derivation of words or names used in the book Information about any character that is based on a historical person Qualifications: Must have the desire and the ability to research and be able to document your sources in MLA format. Responsibilities: Share at least one interesting and relevant finding with your Book Circle each Discussion Day. Post finding to your Book Circle blog a day prior to each of the Discussion Days. Must provide your source in MLA format

Summarizer Job Description: Your job is to help your group see the overall picture by extracting important details. Qualifications: Must be a strong reader and a good critical thinker. Should also be able to read closely and recognize humor, irony, and important ideas. Literary Luminaries consistently have strong instincts about what is significant and what is not. Responsibilities: Prepare and present a one-page summary for the chunk of the book decided upon by the group for each of the Book Circle Discussion Days. Post the one-page summary from the book to your Book Circle blog a day prior to each of the Discussion Days.

Illustrator Job Description: Your job is to create a visual representation of key themes, images, plot, character, scenes, and/or setting from the reading. You may use your own artistic skills to create original artwork or create a collage of magazine pictures or download relevant, appropriate pictures from the Internet. Qualifications: Must have some degree of artistic ability. Responsibilities: Create and present at least one visual representation for the chunk of the book decided upon by the group for each of the Book Circle Discussion Days. Post the visual representation to your Book Circle blog a day prior to each of the Discussion Days. Must give the page numbers and a description of each visual representation.

Literary Luminary Job Description: Your job is to call attention to key lines, quotes, and details from the text. Your purpose is to help other students by spotlighting something interesting, powerful, funny, puzzling, or important from the text. Include your reasons for picking the paragraphs or sections you did. Qualifications: Must be able to read closely and recognize humor, irony, and important ideas. Literary Luminaries consistently have strong instincts about what is significant and what is not. Responsibilities: Choose and explain your reason for choosing at least three (3) paragraphs or sentences from the book to share with your Book Circle each Discussion Day. Post selections from the book and explanations to your Book Circle blog a day prior to each of the Discussion Days. Must record the page number and paragraph.

Vocabulary Enricher Job Description: Your job is to identify important and/or unfamiliar words and provide a definition (taking into account denotation and connotation), synonyms, an original sentence, and the context in which they appear. Qualifications: Must have strong dictionary and thesaurus skills. Responsibilities: Provide list of 10 important and/or unfamiliar words along with their definitions, synonyms, and original sentence, and the context for which they appear for the chunk of the book decided upon by the group for each of the Book Circle Discussion Day. Post list of vocabulary words to your Book Circle blog a day prior to each of the Discussion Days. Must give the page numbers of each word.