Literature Circles/Book Groups: General Overview                                                                     Robison 05/06

For the remainder of the year you will be involved in Literature Circles, during which you will choose, read, and study a novel of your choice from a list provided to you by me. You will be placed in small groups (3-6 members) based on your 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd choices. The format and study of your discussion sessions will be dictated by both my expectations and your group’s desired focus. You will be responsible for multiple tasks outlined below:

Calendar:

Roles: Each group member needs to take on each role at least once. Please outline who will be fulfilling the roles for each meeting time. In some cases you may have to double up.

Discussion Director: directs discussions and summarizes for the group. Brings questions to meetings to stimulate and facilitate discussion and also acts as a summarizer for the group – i.e. the reading & what has occurred in the group that day.

Thematic Tracker: identifies and tracks thematic development. Links themes to specific excerpts from the text.

Recorder: records minutes from discussion. Identifies important elements or questions raised during meeting time. Notes should be turned into group’s folder at the end of each discussion day.

Background Investigator: is responsible for researching and bringing in background info. on the author,  setting, time era, events, you will read about in the novel. Role is 1 time only.

Illustrator: provides 1-2 illustrations for the group based on the reading section for the day. This person represents the elements of the novel in an artistic way. For example draws a portrait of the novel’s protagonist

Vocabulary Enricher: word identification, definition and uses quote from text to enrich understanding.

Travel Tracker: identifies and tracks the journey the character(s) is/are taking, either physical or metaphorically.

Connector: relates book, protagonist to current time period. In other words, how would the protagonist function in our society? What struggles or triumphs are shared between the novel and life now?

Style Analyst: chooses one passage from reading to take a closer look at literary elements. Perhaps you would choose to focus on a fight scene, what struggles are brought up? What character traits are developed, etc.

Character Shrink: tracks characters and their development, how they relate to their world, how they relate to themselves, how they relate to the conflict, how the reader relates to the characters.

Assignments for Lit. Circles: You will be given a specific focus and/or assignment for each meeting day. You are expected to come to class prepared to discuss the focus for that day. These include:

            Characterization

            Literary Devices, Symbolism & Motifs

            Creative Representation: visual art

            Close Reading & Thematic Development

            Current Event – tied to specific theme & Relevancy to Today

            Creative Representation: creative writing

Final Presentation:

As a group you will prepare a final presentation that will incorporate and encompass all you have learned and worked on throughout your study of your novel. Each member must equally contribute to the presentation and final project. In doing these presentations you are attempting to “sell” the book to prospective readers. Therefore, to complete this project you must come up with a 20 min. lesson which captures a single aspect (theme, character, idea, setting, etc.) of the novel you have been studying. The minimum requirements for the presentations are:

·        BRIEF summary of the novel (Do not give away key parts or the end of the novel!)

·        BRIEF biography of the author and how he/she relates to the novel and the time period during which he/she was writing.

·        Focus for the activity/discussion that will ensue

·        It is imperative that each group member facilitates or leads some aspect of the lesson.

Beyond those three requirements you are allowed to “teach” us anything you want, as long as it is somehow bound to a single part of the novel as a whole. Some suggestions include:

-         Close reading to identify theme (provide students copies of text)

-         Scene reenactment followed by discussion of character development/interrelationships.

-         Character analysis based on excerpts of the novel (provide students copies of text)

-         Style analysis (works especially well if you have read an author whose style is challenging or unique – provide students with examples from the text)

-         Socratic seminar: Questions based off of excerpt from novel

-         Small group discussions based on identifying different themes from a variety of excerpts from the book

-         Activity/Game which allows for the discussion of a theme related to the text.

-         Etc.

Note: It is very difficult to facilitate a class in a discussion about a text which they have not read. Therefore, your task is to engage us in a lesson which hints at a single aspect or part of the novel you studied and piques our interest.