1. Chapter 13 Encouraging Response to Literature: Literary Discussions

2. What is a Literature Circle? Vehicle for organizing literature discussion in classrooms Interpretive community - share impressions, wonder together, challenge ideas, and explore together. Grand Conversations - as contrasted with gentle inquisitions

3. Organizing Literature Circles Selecting books Group size Length and frequency of sessions Discussion leader Free or guided responses

4. Selecting Books Differences in books account for the quality of discussions Need high quality literature Must have issues that interest students Thematic, Story Line, Craft, Across Curriculum, and Genre Allow students to help select books

5. Forming Literature Circles There is no “best” size Depends on children’s previous experience Can start with whole group and move to smaller groups Can be as few as two people Depends on whether or not all students are reading the same book.

6. Length and Frequency Start with 10 to 15 minutes As students become more adept, lengthen the time up to 30 or 40 minutes Typical session is 20 minutes Set up reading times for students

7. Role of the Teacher Model response-based discussion Help children learn new discussion roles Move discussion forward Support literary learning as opportunities arise

8. Help Children Learn New Roles Sit in circle Only one person talks at a time Listen to each other Stay on topic

9. Preparing Have some planned questions Not all student responses are equally valid Require students to defend and support their ideas based on the text Maintain your own response journal Reflect on literary elements pg. 484

10. Journals as Response Strategies Free Response Journals –Take time to think about and reflect –Effective with read alouds –Serve as conversation starters –Could also be used as visual responses where the student creates a picture

11. Prompted Response Journals –Teacher provides the prompt –Good for students who are unfamiliar with journaling –Particularly good to elicit personal interpretations –Often provide more critical reflections

12. Literary Journals –Students assume the persona of one of the characters in the story and write journal entries as that character –More appropriate for older students

13. Dialogue Journals –A student and teacher or another student maintain a written dialogue about the story –Used to extend the conversation beyond the literature circle –Allows students to deepen their understandings –Allows teachers to gain further insights about students

14. Open-Ended Discussion Questions Invite students to share –Observations –Unanswered questions or wonderings –Anything they were reminded of by the story

15. Pose Literary Questions Ask questions that go beyond the story Ask questions that help the reader better understand the story Ask questions that have at least two good answers Ask questions that raise issues Ask questions that deal with craft

16. Webs and Charts Help students identify important issues in stories Focus attention on connections Help understand how literary and artistic elements work Explore genre characteristics Explore literary devices - metaphors