Literature Circles

What are literature circles?

Literature circles are a wonderful method to motivate students and foster higher levels of thinking. Students read and respond to books, which are typically chosen by the students. A wide assortment of books with different reading levels should be available in the classroom in order to accommodate varying abilities. As for the discussion, most of the responses are student led, though teachers will participate and guide the discussion when necessary. Teachers may enrich the discussion by asking thought provoking questions to inspire students to think more complexly. Overall, students should feel comfortable participating in the discussion and working collaboratively.

Recently, at my Tuesday Experience placement, the fourth-graders participated in a literature circle. Each student was assigned a role and completed worksheets at home after completing the reading. The roles included discussion director, connector, word finder, passage picker, and an illustrator. The teacher facilitated the discussion, but allowed the students much freedom with how the discussion unfolded. They each shared their completed worksheets with one another and focused on making connections as a group. The majority of students were entirely engaged and freely participated, which is the goal for literature circles.

Students truly benefit from opportunities to work collaboratively with classmates. Books must not be too easy nor too challenging because students will lose focus. Several students in my classroom were unable to follow the storyline and became rather frustrated. According to Tompkins’ Language Arts: Patterns of Practice, Piaget suggests that if “new information is too difficult and we cannot relate it to what we already know, we don’t learn” (page 6). Similarly in Tompkins, Vygotsky claims “children learn little by performing tasks that they can already do independently – tasks at their actual developmental level – or by attempting tasks that are too difficult” (page 8). After observing the struggling children in the literature circle, I definitely concur with the theories of learning proposed by both Piaget and Vygotsky. I will absolutely incorporate literature circles into my own classroom in the future being cautious to use level appropriate texts.