Roles in the Literary Circles

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. This 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.

 Sticky Notes needed especially for the following:

Comments                                                        Travel tracking (physical & character development)

Your interaction with the text                               Important scenes

Questions                                                           Journal Entries