1. Literature Circles
in Grades 6-8
Chocowinity Middle School
May 17, 2012

2. Student:
“I am really not
interested in books or
reading or anything like
that. Especially poetry.”
“I hate reading.”
Teacher:
“Please stop
reading while
you’re walking
down the hall! You
might bump into
someone!”

3. How to Bartle Puzballs
There are tork gooboos of puzballs, including
laplies, mushos, and fushos. Even if you bartle
the puzballs that tovo inny and onny of the
pern, they do not grunto any lipples. In order
to geemee a puzball that gruntos lipples, you
should bartle the fusho who has rarckled the
parshtootoos after her humply fluflu.
From Deeper Reading (2004)

4. Conversation Piece
* No! With you. Tell me!
Yes. No! Look.
You didn’t! Yes. Oh, no!
I did He didn’t … Oh, yes.
When? He did. You can’t!
Just now. We didn’t … I can.
Where? You did. Please!
Bedroom. You knew? Don’t beg.
Dead? I knew. Forgive me!
Yes. How long? Too late.
Why? Long enough. Good God!
You know. What now? Good bye.
I don’t! Guess. -------
You do. Police? Operator?
Unfaithful? Later. Yes, sir.
Yes. Why later? The police.
With whom? Guess again. From Deeper Reading (2004)

5. GOAL
MOTIVATED & ENGAGED
readers who
THINK DEEPLY
about text.

6. Middle School Readers:
What We Know
1. Decline in reading motivation and achievement at
the middle school level (Casey, 2009; Guthrie & Wigfield, 2000)
2. Reasons for lack of reading comprehension: poor
motivation, lack of experience, and egocentricity.
They have not had experiences with language in
meaningful situations (Holloway, 1999).
3. Goals that best support middle school students'
development in reading and learning from text:
actively construct meaning from text, learn about
themselves and others, read strategically, and
enjoy reading (Fisher & Ivey, 2006).

7. IRE
Teacher INITIATES,
students RESPOND, and then
teacher EVALUATES.

8. Social Constructivist
Literacy Learning
Actively construct meaning from text as a
joint activity rather than one that is
transmitted from the teacher to the student.
(Lee & Smagorinsky, 2000; McKeown, Beck, & Blake, 2009)

9. Literature Discussions
Can be effective methods to support
engagement at all levels
(Burns, 1998; Casey 2008/2009; Heller, 2006; Lloyd, 2004; Long & Gove, 2003; Swaggerty, 2009; Wiebe Berry & Englert,
2005).
Can also promote reading comprehension and
learning
(Applebee, Langer, Nystrand, & Gamoran, 2009; McKeown, Beck, & Blake, 2009; Pardo, 2004; Wiebe Berry & Englert, 2005).

10. • 72 sixth grade students
• 3 blocks of Language Arts

11. INVITE CHAOS:
Getting Started with Literature Circles
MODEL,
MODEL,
MODEL
SCAFFOLD, SCAFFOLD, SCAFFOLD:
“All learning is social at first, with an expert guiding
the learning through scaffolding. An expert teacher
gradually turns over the responsibility of the task to
the learner, moving back in to the dialogue as
needed.” ~Vygotsky

12. Getting Started
1. TEACH THE PROCESS
Choose books, plan with your group, read
carefully with your role in mind, bring your
completed role sheet and talk about the book
with your group, share with the whole class,
complete a response project.
2. WHOLE CLASS PRACTICE TOGETHER
Teach roles and model each one. Ex: everyone
tries being the Discussion Director in small groups,
filling out role sheet first, then “trying on” the role
in small groups.

13. ROLES
Discussion Director: acts as group’s facilitator; creates questions to increase
comprehension; asks who, what, why, when, where, how, and what if; open-ended
questions that will stimulate discussion; focus on themes/big ideas
Word Wizard: locates amazing/interesting words; looks for new words or words used
in unusual ways; clarifies word meanings and pronunciations; uses research resource;
points to the words in context
Literary Luminary: locates examples of amazing/interesting writing that could be
read aloud to the group; guides oral reading for a purpose; examines figurative language,
parts of speech, and vivid descriptions
Reporter: prepares a summary of the book or selected reading; highlights the
important details, events, and characters.
Connector: makes text-to-self, text-to-world, and text-to-text connections; makes
connections to what you’re studying; make disconnections.
Checker: checks for completion of assignments; evaluates participation; helps monitor
discussion for equal participation

14. Practice: FISHBOWL
Key Ideas:
Teach kids how to talk about text
Teach them how to compose good questions,
questions that invite discussion
Teach kids how to be in a group
Teach them how to listen to one another
Teach kids how to read with purpose

15. Preparing for Literature
Circle Meetings
1. High-interest books, span ability levels
2. Book talks
3. Students rank order books
4. Teacher build groups based on choice
(sometimes ability)

16. First Meeting
• Teacher reads aloud a chapter or two to build
excitement, set the tone, model pronunciation
of new/difficult words
• Determine roles
• Determine how far to read
• Reminders: How to “be” in a group and how
to read with your role in mind

17. DURING: Literature Circle Meetings
• Adequate talk time
• Put kids in a circle
• Sit on the outside
• Float and dip
• Strategies such as non-evaluative responses (hmmmm
… ok…) tell students that they are to continue the
dialogue
• Encourage kids to be respectful of one another’s
perspectives and experiences
• Reinforce positive, respectful, constructive
contributions
• Set goals for next meeting

18. Reflect
• What went well?
• What could be improved?

19. Try it!
Read the first 2 chapters with your role in mind.
Use post-its to identify questions, connections,
notes, etc.
Fill in the role sheet as you go.
Talk and listen!

20. Take it Further
DIGITAL TALK: Moodle/Edmodo

21. Response Projects
Powerpoint, VoiceThread, GoogleDocs
http://voicethread.com/#q.b1888015.i9947656

22. Extra Support for Strugglers
Make sure they can read their books
Meet with them more often to make sure
they are reading and are ready for the
discussion
Give them extra opportunities to ask
questions
Make sure they feel success with reading
Keep them excited and motivated

23. Resource
Getting Started with Literature Circles
(readwritethink.org)

24. Some High-interest Middle School Books
Drums Girls Dangerous Pie
Freak the Mighty
Chicken Boy
Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief
How I Survived Middle School
Graphic novels
My Life as a Book
Maximum Ride
Hunger Games
What Happened to
Goodbye

25. Elizabeth Swaggerty Kelley Bunn Lisa Godley
Reading Education Grade 6 Language Arts Grade 6 Language Arts
East Carolina University Chocowinity Middle School Chocowinity Middle School
swaggertye@ecu.edu kbunn@beaufort.k12.nc.us lgodley@beaufort.k12.nc.us
http://swaggertye.wordpress.com/