Findings
Cycle 1: Learning the Roles
The First Two Weeks
After spending a summer reading and trying to understand literature circles it was time to sit down and figure out how to implement them in my classroom. I had already begun to anticipate some of the challenges that we would face. I knew that literature circles and the element of choice would be new for the majority of my students. I was aware that this collaborative type environment, that I was hoping to create, would be different for the students. Finally, I realized that we might encounter unique obstacles because this would be my students’ first formal English instruction. With these challenges considered, I was ready to get started.
My first goals were to collect initial data on the students’ attitudes towards reading as well as create a classroom community where reading is valued. In order to get an idea of the students’ attitude towards reading, I gave my students the Elementary Reading Attitude Survey. Michael McKenna and Dennis Kear (1990) created this survey to “estimate the attitude levels of students and initiate informal assessment efforts into the role attitude plays in students’ development of readers”. It measures students’ attitudes toward recreational reading and academic reading. Recreational reading is described as reading for fun while academic reading is reading for academic purposes. I wanted to give them this before I was able to have any influence on the students. I explained that there were no right or wrong answers but I just wanted them to mark the answer they felt best described them. This activity was completed as a whole class, in order to ensure the students did not struggle with reading the survey.
This initial survey gave me a lot of interesting information. From the Elementary Reading Attitude Survey I learned that 56% of the students have a stronger attitude toward recreational reading, 36% have a stronger attitude toward academic reading, and 8% have an equal attitude toward recreational and academic reading. The graph below shows this:
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The First Two Weeks
After spending a summer reading and trying to understand literature circles it was time to sit down and figure out how to implement them in my classroom. I had already begun to anticipate some of the challenges that we would face. I knew that literature circles and the element of choice would be new for the majority of my students. I was aware that this collaborative type environment, that I was hoping to create, would be different for the students. Finally, I realized that we might encounter unique obstacles because this would be my students’ first formal English instruction. With these challenges considered, I was ready to get started.
My first goals were to collect initial data on the students’ attitudes towards reading as well as create a classroom community where reading is valued. In order to get an idea of the students’ attitude towards reading, I gave my students the Elementary Reading Attitude Survey. Michael McKenna and Dennis Kear (1990) created this survey to “estimate the attitude levels of students and initiate informal assessment efforts into the role attitude plays in students’ development of readers”. It measures students’ attitudes toward recreational reading and academic reading. Recreational reading is described as reading for fun while academic reading is reading for academic purposes. I wanted to give them this before I was able to have any influence on the students. I explained that there were no right or wrong answers but I just wanted them to mark the answer they felt best described them. This activity was completed as a whole class, in order to ensure the students did not struggle with reading the survey.
This initial survey gave me a lot of interesting information. From the Elementary Reading Attitude Survey I learned that 56% of the students have a stronger attitude toward recreational reading, 36% have a stronger attitude toward academic reading, and 8% have an equal attitude toward recreational and academic reading. The graph below shows this:
.
Some students added some interesting comments and drawings to their surveys. Jimmy, who is according to the survey is an academic reader, responded to the question “How do you feel about learning from a book?” by circling the happiest Garfield and adding “x 5,000,000,000”. By adding in this element, Jimmy shows that he really does love to learn from books. On the contrary, Symone answered the question, “How do you feel when you read a book on a rainy Saturday?” by circling the third Garfield and writing above it “bored”. Finally, Bill responded to the question “How do you feel about reading during summer vacation?” by circling the fourth Garfield and drawing a devil’s pitch fork. Even though many students are considered recreational readers according to this survey, it is evident through these additions that some students do not always love to read. These additions really help to understand the students’ true feelings towards reading.
In order to better verify my data, I gave my students a second short survey. Although there were some students who demonstrated a strong dislike for reading in the first Garfield survey, when I asked them “Do you read for enjoyment?” 80% of the student responded “yes,” 12% said “sometimes,” and only 8% said “no.” In order to verify the validity of their responses I asked them the multiple-choice question,
What would you say about yourself as a reader?
____ I love to read and always have my nose in a book.
____ I’m forced to do it, but I enjoy it.
____ I don’t like it.
____ Other: ______________________________
The results to this question corresponded with the enjoyment of reading question as majority of the students responded “I love to read and always have my nose in a book.” The graph below outlines the students’ responses.
In order to better verify my data, I gave my students a second short survey. Although there were some students who demonstrated a strong dislike for reading in the first Garfield survey, when I asked them “Do you read for enjoyment?” 80% of the student responded “yes,” 12% said “sometimes,” and only 8% said “no.” In order to verify the validity of their responses I asked them the multiple-choice question,
What would you say about yourself as a reader?
____ I love to read and always have my nose in a book.
____ I’m forced to do it, but I enjoy it.
____ I don’t like it.
____ Other: ______________________________
The results to this question corresponded with the enjoyment of reading question as majority of the students responded “I love to read and always have my nose in a book.” The graph below outlines the students’ responses.
During this survey, I again encouraged students to answer honestly and reinforced the idea that there was no right or wrong answer. I was surprised that so many students described themselves and loving to read and always having their nose in a book. I wonder if some students chose this answer because they believed that this was the answer I was looking for.
I had a strong feeling that most of my students had never been exposed to a literature circle before but I just wanted to make sure. When I asked them, “Have you ever participated in a literature circle or book discussion group?” most of them were very confused. These words were something they had never heard and they were unclear how to answer. The vast majority of students responded that they had never been a part of a literature circle group. The graph below shows the students answers to this question.
I had a strong feeling that most of my students had never been exposed to a literature circle before but I just wanted to make sure. When I asked them, “Have you ever participated in a literature circle or book discussion group?” most of them were very confused. These words were something they had never heard and they were unclear how to answer. The vast majority of students responded that they had never been a part of a literature circle group. The graph below shows the students answers to this question.
I was not surprised by the answers to this question. Because of the nature of our school we get very few new students each year. I know that the other primary teachers at my school do not use literature circles in their classrooms. Because of this, I was a bit surprised at the “yes” responses. I realize that it is quite possible for a students to be a part of a literature circle outside of school but, judging from who these “yes” responses came from I think it could also be a product of them trying to please me. I knew that this meant that we would have to start very slowly since it would be a new activity for my students.
Before we could begin reading, I needed to know where my students reading levels were. San Diego City Schools administers the Gates-MacGinite Reading Test at the beginning of the school year. Each student takes this multiple choice reading assessment. Although I feel that sometimes this type of test does not offer accurate results for young students in particular, it provided me a quick snapshot of my students’ initial levels. When I received the results I was not surprised to see that many of my students were reading below grade level. A graph of their results is below.
Before we could begin reading, I needed to know where my students reading levels were. San Diego City Schools administers the Gates-MacGinite Reading Test at the beginning of the school year. Each student takes this multiple choice reading assessment. Although I feel that sometimes this type of test does not offer accurate results for young students in particular, it provided me a quick snapshot of my students’ initial levels. When I received the results I was not surprised to see that many of my students were reading below grade level. A graph of their results is below.
It is quickly noted that the majority (16 of 27) of students are reading below grade level. At a glance this can be very disturbing, but it must be pointed out that our students, although most are native English speakers, have not been formally taught English in school. Many of these children have not been exposed to the academic language presented on a test. This being said, we hold our students accountable for reaching grade level standards in both languages. We have our work cut out for us and there was nothing left to do but start reading!
Reading Begins
With the survey and reading assessment finished, we were able to settle in and get to know each other. I read the story Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman to the class. The story is about a little girl who loves stories. The students quickly identified with Grace and were appalled when a boy told Grace she couldn’t play Peter, in the play of Peter Pan, because she was a girl and African American. In the end of the story, Grace is the star of the play and the boy realizes that he has made a mistake. The students were glued to the story and participated in a lively discussion when it was finished. I felt like this was the perfect time to explain literature circles, or literature clubs as we refer to them. I explained what they were and how they would work using a poster I created with a colleague (Appendix 3). Their blank stares told me they weren’t quite understanding what a literature circle was but I was able to reassure them we would work together for the next few weeks and then it would become more clear.
In order to scaffold the learning of each role and to continue to create a classroom community where reading was valued, the next day I read Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett. This is a vividly imaginative book about the town of Chewandswallow where food falls from the sky at mealtime. The students adored this book and couldn’t help but laugh out loud. On this day, everyone completed the role of “Iguana Illustrator” (Appendix 4). The group member who is completing this role has the job of creating a picture related to the reading. They are asked to draw something that happened in the book, something that the reading reminded them of, or a picture of any idea or feeling they got from the reading. Each student was given the role sheet of “Iguana Illustrator” so they could practice and begin to understand this process. Their creativity soared as they drew rain made of spaghetti and pancake mountains.
After finishing their drawings, they shared their work in groups of four. Each group member looked at the drawing and told the group what struck them about the drawing. This gave members a chance to connect to the drawing in their own way. After members had an opportunity to share, the artist shared their thought process while drawing. Finally, we had a class discussion to review this process. Below is Maraglo’s drawing of a house of made a cheese and bread clouds as shown below.
Reading Begins
With the survey and reading assessment finished, we were able to settle in and get to know each other. I read the story Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman to the class. The story is about a little girl who loves stories. The students quickly identified with Grace and were appalled when a boy told Grace she couldn’t play Peter, in the play of Peter Pan, because she was a girl and African American. In the end of the story, Grace is the star of the play and the boy realizes that he has made a mistake. The students were glued to the story and participated in a lively discussion when it was finished. I felt like this was the perfect time to explain literature circles, or literature clubs as we refer to them. I explained what they were and how they would work using a poster I created with a colleague (Appendix 3). Their blank stares told me they weren’t quite understanding what a literature circle was but I was able to reassure them we would work together for the next few weeks and then it would become more clear.
In order to scaffold the learning of each role and to continue to create a classroom community where reading was valued, the next day I read Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett. This is a vividly imaginative book about the town of Chewandswallow where food falls from the sky at mealtime. The students adored this book and couldn’t help but laugh out loud. On this day, everyone completed the role of “Iguana Illustrator” (Appendix 4). The group member who is completing this role has the job of creating a picture related to the reading. They are asked to draw something that happened in the book, something that the reading reminded them of, or a picture of any idea or feeling they got from the reading. Each student was given the role sheet of “Iguana Illustrator” so they could practice and begin to understand this process. Their creativity soared as they drew rain made of spaghetti and pancake mountains.
After finishing their drawings, they shared their work in groups of four. Each group member looked at the drawing and told the group what struck them about the drawing. This gave members a chance to connect to the drawing in their own way. After members had an opportunity to share, the artist shared their thought process while drawing. Finally, we had a class discussion to review this process. Below is Maraglo’s drawing of a house of made a cheese and bread clouds as shown below.
The following day the students were eager to find out what story we would be reading. We read Thunder Cake by Patricia Polacco. This story is about a girl who is scared of storms. On a stormy summer day, she makes thunder cake with her grandma and without realizing she is able to overcome her fears. After discussing our own fears and connections to this story we all took on the role of “Snake Summarizer” (Appendix 5). The role of “Snake Summarizer” is to record the key points, the highlights, and the sequence of events of the reading. Each student completed their work and then shared it with a small group of four students. We had a class discussion following the share out about our work for the day. They were beginning to have a clearer picture of literature circles but still had many questions. Frank seemed to really understand the idea of a summary and did a wonderful job completing is role sheet. Below is his work:
After the weekend, the kids again entered ready to hear the next story. We read The Days of Summer by Eve Bunting. This story was very different from the others because it was a sad story about divorce. You could see the emotion in the students’ eyes as they told me how the story made them feel. In addition to being a powerful story, I chose this book because of the words the author uses. The girl in the story learns the word doleful and first tries to understand the meaning and then tries to use it. It was the perfect way to introduce the role of “Wombat Word Wizard” to the students (Appendix 6). The job of the “Wombat Word Wizard” is to pick three unknown words from the reading. These words may be repeated a lot, used in a different way, important to the story, or new to the reader. They then record these words on the role sheet and write the definition of these words using a dictionary. Because I only had one copy of the book, we completed our role sheet as a whole class and shared about the experience in small groups.
Our next story was The Old Woman Who Named Things by Cynthia Rylant. This story is about an old woman who has lost so many friends that she will only name things that she knows she can outlive. It’s a funny story with a deep meaning. It was a wonderful book to introduce the role of “Parrot Passage Picker” to my students (Appendix 7). The job of the “Parrot Passage Picker” is to locate a few special sections of the text that your group would like to hear read aloud. The idea is to help people remember some interesting, powerful, funny, puzzling, or important sections of the text. This book had a such a great variety of passages to pick out it was hard for the students to only chose a few. We once again met in small groups to share work and I think the kids could have talked about the book all day in their small groups!
I had saved the hardest role for last, the “Dolphin Discussion Director” (Appendix 8). The task of this person is to write questions for the group to discuss. These questions are to help the group talk over the big ideas in the book and share their reactions. I knew that helping the kids learn to write this type of question would be a challenge. I read the popular story The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister to the class. Since most of the students had heard the story before it was easy for them to understand. Our goal was to write good discussion starter questions. To help my third graders understand different types of questions, I called them “fat questions and skinny questions”. A fat question is a question that does not have just one answer and we can’t find the answer in the book. A skinny questions only has one correct answer and it can be found in the book. The students worked in pairs to complete a sorting activity of fat and skinny questions based the The Rainbow Fish. The following day everyone completed the role of “Dolphin Discussion Director” using the same book and shared their fat questions in groups of four. Our class meeting was a discussion of everything that we had learned and to help the students prepare for their first novel. Isaac came up with these questions, which are great examples of “fat questions":
Our next story was The Old Woman Who Named Things by Cynthia Rylant. This story is about an old woman who has lost so many friends that she will only name things that she knows she can outlive. It’s a funny story with a deep meaning. It was a wonderful book to introduce the role of “Parrot Passage Picker” to my students (Appendix 7). The job of the “Parrot Passage Picker” is to locate a few special sections of the text that your group would like to hear read aloud. The idea is to help people remember some interesting, powerful, funny, puzzling, or important sections of the text. This book had a such a great variety of passages to pick out it was hard for the students to only chose a few. We once again met in small groups to share work and I think the kids could have talked about the book all day in their small groups!
I had saved the hardest role for last, the “Dolphin Discussion Director” (Appendix 8). The task of this person is to write questions for the group to discuss. These questions are to help the group talk over the big ideas in the book and share their reactions. I knew that helping the kids learn to write this type of question would be a challenge. I read the popular story The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister to the class. Since most of the students had heard the story before it was easy for them to understand. Our goal was to write good discussion starter questions. To help my third graders understand different types of questions, I called them “fat questions and skinny questions”. A fat question is a question that does not have just one answer and we can’t find the answer in the book. A skinny questions only has one correct answer and it can be found in the book. The students worked in pairs to complete a sorting activity of fat and skinny questions based the The Rainbow Fish. The following day everyone completed the role of “Dolphin Discussion Director” using the same book and shared their fat questions in groups of four. Our class meeting was a discussion of everything that we had learned and to help the students prepare for their first novel. Isaac came up with these questions, which are great examples of “fat questions":
Organization
In order to keep all 44 of my students organized, I gave each literature club group a binder. The first page of this binder is the group’s literature club schedule. This schedule includes what chapters are to be read each week, the page numbers and the meeting date. Following this paper are four dividers. Each tab is labeled week 1, week 2, week 3 and week 4. Within each section are all the role sheets for that week, a reflection for each student and the “How to Have a Literature Club Meeting” sheet. Each week when the students pick their new roles they take the paper out of the binder. The role sheet is kept with their book at their desk to be completed throughout the week. The binders are then passed to the “Dolphin Discussion Director” before the meeting and it is that person’s job to be the leader of the meeting. After the meeting is completed, all students place their finished role sheets back in the binder, complete a reflection and return it to the binder.
Cycle 2: Literature Circles with the Same Book
Freckle Juice
To help continue to support the students I decided to have all students begin literature circles by reading the same book. I wanted to gradually release responsibility to them and not overwhelm them with everything at once. I also felt that if everyone was reading the same book, then we could focus more on how literature circles worked. Daniels (2002) cites a third grade teacher who uses this whole class novel strategy. The purpose of this is to teach mini-lessons to the entire class regarding the logistics of literature circles while being able to compare notes across groups. Our class novel was Freckle Juice, by Judy Blume. I thought that it would be a great book for the students to start with. It is a book that most of the students can read with relative ease, while still being a fun story that can lead to many great discussions. It is also a shorter book but it is still divided up in chapters. This book is a Fountas and Pinnell level M, meaning it’s an end of second grade level book. It is about a boy named Andrew who would do anything to have freckles like his classmate. When a girl offers to sell him a recipe for “freckle juice”, Andrew decides it’s worth the investment. Although the special juice doesn’t work, he learns a lot about accepting himself the way that he is.
Because everyone was reading the same book, I strategically formed the groups. I wanted the students to have a group that they would meet with each week while reading Freckle Juice. Each group consisted of four or five students. Every group had a high reader, a low reader, and a couple middle readers based on their Gates-Macginitie Reading Test scores. Each Monday, I assigned the students a role for the week in order to make sure that students completed a variety of roles. Students have daily silent reading time where they work to complete the assigned chapters and their role sheet. Meetings are held each Friday and only students with completed work may attend. If a student is struggling with their reading they are assigned a buddy to help them read or listen to an audio version of the book.
The kids could not wait to get their hands on the books and clapped and cheered as I passed them out. Even after all the practice there was still a lot of nervous energy in the air as I passed out their assigned role sheets for the week. They all wanted to be Iguana Illustrator. A few students told me they didn’t know if they could do the work on their own. Two students struggled after beginning to read so I read the short chapter to them. Bridgette even started to cry as I handed her the Snake Summarizer role sheet stating, “It’s too hard!” We sat down together to review what she would have to do as Snake Summarizer. She still seemed a little unsure about it, so I told her to speak with me after she finished her reading and we would work on the role sheet together. As she finished her reading, she was able to tell me all about the beginning of the story. I explained to her that she had just completed the role of Snake Summarizer and now just needed to go write it down. She happily returned to her table to begin working. Many of the other students were able to read the book without any problems and were disappointed to find out they could only read the first chapter.
As the first week passed, the anticipation of our first real literature club meeting mounted. In order to properly introduce literature club meetings, I “fish-bowled” a group of students. I selected five students, one from each group, to come to the front of the room and have a meeting in front of the class. To help keep all the students on task, all groups worked with the paper “How to have a Literature Club meeting”.
In order to keep all 44 of my students organized, I gave each literature club group a binder. The first page of this binder is the group’s literature club schedule. This schedule includes what chapters are to be read each week, the page numbers and the meeting date. Following this paper are four dividers. Each tab is labeled week 1, week 2, week 3 and week 4. Within each section are all the role sheets for that week, a reflection for each student and the “How to Have a Literature Club Meeting” sheet. Each week when the students pick their new roles they take the paper out of the binder. The role sheet is kept with their book at their desk to be completed throughout the week. The binders are then passed to the “Dolphin Discussion Director” before the meeting and it is that person’s job to be the leader of the meeting. After the meeting is completed, all students place their finished role sheets back in the binder, complete a reflection and return it to the binder.
Cycle 2: Literature Circles with the Same Book
Freckle Juice
To help continue to support the students I decided to have all students begin literature circles by reading the same book. I wanted to gradually release responsibility to them and not overwhelm them with everything at once. I also felt that if everyone was reading the same book, then we could focus more on how literature circles worked. Daniels (2002) cites a third grade teacher who uses this whole class novel strategy. The purpose of this is to teach mini-lessons to the entire class regarding the logistics of literature circles while being able to compare notes across groups. Our class novel was Freckle Juice, by Judy Blume. I thought that it would be a great book for the students to start with. It is a book that most of the students can read with relative ease, while still being a fun story that can lead to many great discussions. It is also a shorter book but it is still divided up in chapters. This book is a Fountas and Pinnell level M, meaning it’s an end of second grade level book. It is about a boy named Andrew who would do anything to have freckles like his classmate. When a girl offers to sell him a recipe for “freckle juice”, Andrew decides it’s worth the investment. Although the special juice doesn’t work, he learns a lot about accepting himself the way that he is.
Because everyone was reading the same book, I strategically formed the groups. I wanted the students to have a group that they would meet with each week while reading Freckle Juice. Each group consisted of four or five students. Every group had a high reader, a low reader, and a couple middle readers based on their Gates-Macginitie Reading Test scores. Each Monday, I assigned the students a role for the week in order to make sure that students completed a variety of roles. Students have daily silent reading time where they work to complete the assigned chapters and their role sheet. Meetings are held each Friday and only students with completed work may attend. If a student is struggling with their reading they are assigned a buddy to help them read or listen to an audio version of the book.
The kids could not wait to get their hands on the books and clapped and cheered as I passed them out. Even after all the practice there was still a lot of nervous energy in the air as I passed out their assigned role sheets for the week. They all wanted to be Iguana Illustrator. A few students told me they didn’t know if they could do the work on their own. Two students struggled after beginning to read so I read the short chapter to them. Bridgette even started to cry as I handed her the Snake Summarizer role sheet stating, “It’s too hard!” We sat down together to review what she would have to do as Snake Summarizer. She still seemed a little unsure about it, so I told her to speak with me after she finished her reading and we would work on the role sheet together. As she finished her reading, she was able to tell me all about the beginning of the story. I explained to her that she had just completed the role of Snake Summarizer and now just needed to go write it down. She happily returned to her table to begin working. Many of the other students were able to read the book without any problems and were disappointed to find out they could only read the first chapter.
As the first week passed, the anticipation of our first real literature club meeting mounted. In order to properly introduce literature club meetings, I “fish-bowled” a group of students. I selected five students, one from each group, to come to the front of the room and have a meeting in front of the class. To help keep all the students on task, all groups worked with the paper “How to have a Literature Club meeting”.
I explained each step of the meeting and then the “fishbowl” group demonstrated for the class. We followed this activity with a short discussion of expected meeting behavior and answered questions. This really seemed to help the students understand what they were going to be doing. After this, all the students went to different areas of the room to have their meetings. Each meeting lasted between 20-30 minutes and all students filled out a reflection following the discussion.
As those first meetings began I’m not sure who was more nervous, the students or me. It was the moment of truth. The question, “Could third graders really do this?” kept racing through my head. As they settled into their various areas around the room I couldn’t have been more proud! Students were on task, listening to one another, responding, and being respectful. In their meeting reflections, Carly stated that she “learned from the book.” Elizabeth realized, “ You can have fun during the meeting.” Catherine added that she “shared her ideas about the book with her group and learned new words from the Wombat Word Wizard.” Jimmy declared, “Judy Blume is awesome!” Jimmy also realized from talking with his group that “the girl is probably lying about freckle juice.” I let out a huge sigh of relief and I was very pleased with the students work on this first meeting day.
The only sad part of the day was that Loulou and Margalo barely touched their role sheets. The class had set the standard at the beginning of the week that if the work wasn’t completed they could not attend the meeting. During a class discussion, I asked the students, “What are we going to do if someone does not read?” Their initial reaction was, “Call their parents.” I said, “That could be a possibility but what do we do that day? Should the student attend the meeting?” The students decided that if a child does not complete their reading and role sheet they should not be able to attend the meeting. Even though I knew the girls had read the chapter I felt that I needed to set a standard for the class. The girls worked alone at a table while the others went to their meetings. Their sad faces were heartbreaking, but I hoped they learned to complete their work before next meeting.
With our first meeting under our belts, we settled into the routine of beginning the new role and reading assignment each Monday and having a meeting each Friday. Throughout the three weeks the students read Freckle Juice, we had a “fishbowl” group meeting to review how to have a meeting before all students met with their groups. We also had a class discussion after each meeting to talk about what went well and what needed to improve. This time was often used to talk about our successes. The groups reported to me that all members were working and sharing in addition to telling me about interesting parts of their conversations. They expressed their shock that Andrew would drink such a disgusting drink just to try to get freckles. Many students also immediately did not trust that Sharon was being truthful or a good friend. I also used this class meeting time to try to continue to push their thinking by asking more discussion questions. We talked about the relationship between the main characters and what we would do if they were in our class. It was during these conversations that I begin to realize that the students were very engaged and interested in this book. The class really was enjoying this book and seemed to be able to relate to the characters. It was difficult to end such a lively conversation but when the recess bell rang another type of energy took over the kids as they ran off to play.
As we entered into the second week of work the students’ confidence grew. Sarah wrote the question on her Dolphin Discussion Director role sheet, “If freckle juice were real, would you drink it?” Frank wrote the discussion question, “Why does Sharon not like Andrew?” These are great examples of the “fat questions” we have been talking about. In addition Charlotte wrote a summary with excellent detail and understanding of the book. Loulou, who didn’t finish her work last week, picked a variety of passages that showed a lot of the humor in the book.
When Friday rolled around and it was time for our second meeting there was excitement in the air that replaced the nerves of everyone from the week before. I was again immediately impressed by how quickly the students started their meetings and how everyone stayed on tasks. Post meeting reflections state that Austin learned, “that everyone has different ideas about the reading.” Charlotte added, “ I learned that other people understand the story differently.” In the after meeting class discussion, Greta chimed in that she learned, “an appendicitis is something that happens in your body.” Elizabeth said she learned, “ to never drink something that you have never heard of”. She also thinks “you should never drink anything if you don’t know what it is.” Bob said that everyone in his group “really likes the book.” The overall feeling of the class was extremely positive. I was not sure how to interpret this mood. Their reflections continued to be positive and their cheers when I told them it was literature club time seemed to confirm that they were really enjoying discussing this book with their peers. I began to wonder, “Was this an example of third graders being typical 8 year olds and excited about something new? Were my students excited because reading and speaking in English was something that had not done in school before? How was I going to keep their excitement level high when the newness wore off?” Or dare I believe, they are really just loving literature circles.
As the third week began, the students were anxious to finish the book. They wanted to know if Andrew would really get freckles and what would happen to Sharon. All the students were more confident working on their role sheets and sought out a buddy if they needed help reading. As they began their meetings, I became concerned that they were not pushing themselves hard enough. They seemed to be sticking to similar topics and were not looking for the deeper meanings in the book. The reflections seemed to contradict this feeling that I was having. Catherine said, “I learned to be who you are. That is special.” Jimmy noticed that “the monster on page 38 looks like Sharon and it seems like he [Andrew] is very sad.” Austin noted that another boy in his group wrote “very smart and interesting questions.” Andrea commented “it’s important to share your ideas with your group so they can understand the book better.” As I read these, I could not help but think what a great job they were doing and that I can continue to push them in the future. Below are a few examples of the average student work my class was producing while reading Freckle Juice.
This is Catherine’s illustration of Sharon whispering to Andrew the secret recipe for freckle juice while Andrew imagines himself without freckles.
As those first meetings began I’m not sure who was more nervous, the students or me. It was the moment of truth. The question, “Could third graders really do this?” kept racing through my head. As they settled into their various areas around the room I couldn’t have been more proud! Students were on task, listening to one another, responding, and being respectful. In their meeting reflections, Carly stated that she “learned from the book.” Elizabeth realized, “ You can have fun during the meeting.” Catherine added that she “shared her ideas about the book with her group and learned new words from the Wombat Word Wizard.” Jimmy declared, “Judy Blume is awesome!” Jimmy also realized from talking with his group that “the girl is probably lying about freckle juice.” I let out a huge sigh of relief and I was very pleased with the students work on this first meeting day.
The only sad part of the day was that Loulou and Margalo barely touched their role sheets. The class had set the standard at the beginning of the week that if the work wasn’t completed they could not attend the meeting. During a class discussion, I asked the students, “What are we going to do if someone does not read?” Their initial reaction was, “Call their parents.” I said, “That could be a possibility but what do we do that day? Should the student attend the meeting?” The students decided that if a child does not complete their reading and role sheet they should not be able to attend the meeting. Even though I knew the girls had read the chapter I felt that I needed to set a standard for the class. The girls worked alone at a table while the others went to their meetings. Their sad faces were heartbreaking, but I hoped they learned to complete their work before next meeting.
With our first meeting under our belts, we settled into the routine of beginning the new role and reading assignment each Monday and having a meeting each Friday. Throughout the three weeks the students read Freckle Juice, we had a “fishbowl” group meeting to review how to have a meeting before all students met with their groups. We also had a class discussion after each meeting to talk about what went well and what needed to improve. This time was often used to talk about our successes. The groups reported to me that all members were working and sharing in addition to telling me about interesting parts of their conversations. They expressed their shock that Andrew would drink such a disgusting drink just to try to get freckles. Many students also immediately did not trust that Sharon was being truthful or a good friend. I also used this class meeting time to try to continue to push their thinking by asking more discussion questions. We talked about the relationship between the main characters and what we would do if they were in our class. It was during these conversations that I begin to realize that the students were very engaged and interested in this book. The class really was enjoying this book and seemed to be able to relate to the characters. It was difficult to end such a lively conversation but when the recess bell rang another type of energy took over the kids as they ran off to play.
As we entered into the second week of work the students’ confidence grew. Sarah wrote the question on her Dolphin Discussion Director role sheet, “If freckle juice were real, would you drink it?” Frank wrote the discussion question, “Why does Sharon not like Andrew?” These are great examples of the “fat questions” we have been talking about. In addition Charlotte wrote a summary with excellent detail and understanding of the book. Loulou, who didn’t finish her work last week, picked a variety of passages that showed a lot of the humor in the book.
When Friday rolled around and it was time for our second meeting there was excitement in the air that replaced the nerves of everyone from the week before. I was again immediately impressed by how quickly the students started their meetings and how everyone stayed on tasks. Post meeting reflections state that Austin learned, “that everyone has different ideas about the reading.” Charlotte added, “ I learned that other people understand the story differently.” In the after meeting class discussion, Greta chimed in that she learned, “an appendicitis is something that happens in your body.” Elizabeth said she learned, “ to never drink something that you have never heard of”. She also thinks “you should never drink anything if you don’t know what it is.” Bob said that everyone in his group “really likes the book.” The overall feeling of the class was extremely positive. I was not sure how to interpret this mood. Their reflections continued to be positive and their cheers when I told them it was literature club time seemed to confirm that they were really enjoying discussing this book with their peers. I began to wonder, “Was this an example of third graders being typical 8 year olds and excited about something new? Were my students excited because reading and speaking in English was something that had not done in school before? How was I going to keep their excitement level high when the newness wore off?” Or dare I believe, they are really just loving literature circles.
As the third week began, the students were anxious to finish the book. They wanted to know if Andrew would really get freckles and what would happen to Sharon. All the students were more confident working on their role sheets and sought out a buddy if they needed help reading. As they began their meetings, I became concerned that they were not pushing themselves hard enough. They seemed to be sticking to similar topics and were not looking for the deeper meanings in the book. The reflections seemed to contradict this feeling that I was having. Catherine said, “I learned to be who you are. That is special.” Jimmy noticed that “the monster on page 38 looks like Sharon and it seems like he [Andrew] is very sad.” Austin noted that another boy in his group wrote “very smart and interesting questions.” Andrea commented “it’s important to share your ideas with your group so they can understand the book better.” As I read these, I could not help but think what a great job they were doing and that I can continue to push them in the future. Below are a few examples of the average student work my class was producing while reading Freckle Juice.
This is Catherine’s illustration of Sharon whispering to Andrew the secret recipe for freckle juice while Andrew imagines himself without freckles.
Below is an example of Carly’s passage choices. In this chapter, Andrew was struggling to pay attention in school because he really wanted freckles like Nicky.Below is an example of Carly’s passage choices. In this chapter, Andrew was struggling to pay attention in school because he really wanted freckles like Nicky.
Elizabeth wrote this summary describing the second chapter where Sharon tells Andrew about her secret recipe.
Charlotte wrote these discussion questions after reading a chapter about Andrew buying the recipe from Sharon.
This is Loulou’s word choice when she was Wombat Word Wizard. It is toward the end of the book when Andrew is very sick from drinking freckle juice.
Although this is a limited section of work samples, I believe that this represents the norm of my classes’ work level at this stage. As in any class, there are students who achieved a higher work level than this representation as well as students who worked at a lower level. /action-research.html
A Moment to Reflect
We sat down to have a class meeting about our first complete literature club and I asked the kids, “What do you like about literature clubs?” Many students told me that they really enjoy hearing from and talking to their friends to learn about how others view books. For example Bridgette said, “I think it’s really fun to talk about books and what you think about them with your friends.” Catherine shared, “I think it’s fun because you get to learn more about how to understand books and you get to share ideas that you have instead of just having to keep them all inside of you.” As the students continued to share their ideas I began to hear some themes emerging. These major themes were; its fun to talk about books with friends, enjoyment of sharing ideas, and learning from others.
Next, I asked the class, “What they would like to change about literature clubs?” A couple of students suggested changing the animal on the role sheets, but the major concern was about the after meeting reflection. Brian thought it would be a good idea to “write what we like about the book on the reflection.” I had to agree with the kids that something needed to be changed about the reflection before we began our new books. The current reflection was not easy for the students to understand and was really not giving me the information I was in search of. I knew that I needed to create a more kid friendly format that would allow the students to share their experiences of the meeting with me.
Finally after reading the entire book, I asked, “Why did Judy Blume write this book?” Elizabeth quickly responded, “To teach you that you don’t have to have freckles to look good.” Isaac nodded enthusiastically in agreement. Susan, a shy student who struggles with reading, quietly raised her hand to add, “It doesn’t matter how you look it matters about how you are on the inside.” As the recess bell rang and the students began to leave the room Catherine came up to me, wrapped her arms around me and said, “I love literature clubs!” The three weeks had quickly passed and all the students had finished their first chapter book! They were very proud and eager to find out what we would be reading next.
Cycle 3: The Introduction of Choice
After completing these first two cycles with the students as a way to scaffold their learning, we were all ready to have some choice in the books being read. In order to choose appropriate books for my students I needed to take many things into consideration. First of all, I needed to pick books that would be interesting to my third graders. I also wanted to make sure to have a variety of book topics for the students to choose from. I referred to many lists of suggested literature circle books and after reading some of these books myself, I began to imagine certain students wanting to read each book. I also needed to pick books that were at a third grade reading level while continuing to challenge and push the students. In October and November the school’s target reading level for third grade is a Fountas and Pinnell level N or O. Finally, the last thing to consider was how to get all the copies of the books I needed. With limited funds available to purchase books, I am able to get certain titles through a district lending library. The books I choose were The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Clearly which is a Fountas and Pinnell level O, The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes which is a level O, and 26 Fairmount Avenue by Tomie dePaola which is a level N.
As the students came into the room the following Monday the new books were displayed on a table. They immediately all wanted to touch and look at the books. I asked them to have a seat and I gave a short “book talk,” or explanation, of each book. After the book talks, the students were encouraged to take some time during silent reading to look at the books and think about which book they would like to read. I advised them to pick the book that most interested them but also one they felt comfortable and confident reading.
The next day, the students were given a choice sheet and were asked to number their choices 1-3. The students placed a one by the book they most wanted to read, a two by their second choice and a three by their third choice. Using these sheets I formed the groups trying to allow each student to read their first choice book.
Because we did not have a meeting that week, on Friday I told the students what book they would be reading and who would be in their group. As I read the names of the students assigned to each group, I couldn’t help but smile at Joe. He was sitting on the carpet with all his fingers crossed quietly repeating, “The Mouse and the Motorcycle, The Mouse and the Motorcycle.” When I told him that was the book that he would be reading, he jumped up and let out a short yell of excitement. He proudly took his book from me with a huge grin. The groups met in order to fill out their reading schedule and roll a dice to determine what their first role would be. I ideally wanted to let students choose their role but realized that at the beginning of the year this may prove to be difficult for third graders. I created dice with each role on one side in order to help with this task. The kids would roll and then take out their role sheet from the group binder for that week (appendix 9). Now all that was left for them to do was get reading!
The class continued reading each day Monday thru Thursday and then meet on Fridays. All students were expected to have completed work in order to attend the Friday meeting. Each book would be read over the course of four weeks (Lesson Plans October –November: appendix 10).
When all the students started reading, they all quickly noticed that these books were more difficult. They were now all expected to read more pages, answer questions on their own, and they had less support because not everyone was reading the same book. After noticing some students were struggling, I assigned them buddies to read with. They were to read the assigned pages together and then complete their role sheet independently. As the first couple of days passed and I began to check student work, I noticed that many students were not really reading the book. They were looking at the pictures, trying to understand what was going on, and writing something down on their role sheet. This really discouraged me. They were so excited to get their books but now weren’t even reading them. When I sat with these students and had them read some of their book to me they were able to do it. This told me that for most students the level of the book was not causing the problem but it was a sign of lack of effort. I spoke to these students in great depth about the importance of reading in order to be able to have an interesting discussion. We talked about what to do if they didn’t understand a part of the book. They responded with suggestions like reread, ask someone from your group, or read with your buddy. After this, the class assured me that they would try harder.
Even though there were some students who did not turn in their best work, there were many examples of students who did beautiful work. Andrea wrote great discussion questions while reading The Hundred Dresses. For example she asked, “Why do you think that the girls were being mean to Wanda?” Catherine, who was in Andrea’s group, wrote a wonderful summary of the first section of the book that really points out Wanda’s loneliness. Tina, a shy student who is on an individual education plan (IEP) for learning difficulties, worked with the speech teacher to finish her weekly work. Together they discussed what happened in this section and picked out passages from the chapters. They also practiced what Tina would say with her group the next day. This extra one on one support really helped to build Tina’s confidence before the meeting.
Friday arrived and it was time for another meeting. The students were eager to get started. They continued to use the same meeting structure that was used for the pervious book. For the most part, all students were on task and working. There were some students who became a bit unfocused and began to play.
After our last class meeting, I began to think a lot about the reflection. The students complained about it and I felt that I was not getting enough information from it was well. I decided to use a Garfield format similar to the reading attitude survey. I felt that this would be a little more third grade friendly as well has give me more valuable information. The students told me that this reflection was better and made more sense to them (Appendix 11). When asked, “How much did you enjoy your literature club meeting?” the majority (24 out of 28) of the students replied that they “loved it” or “it was the best part of my day.” This shows that they do still like working in these groups. Elizabeth noted on her reflection, “Everyone did an awesome job! Everyone was a good and fantastic listener! Good work!” It is a bit unsettling though because many students also wrote that group members were talking off topic or were playing during their meeting. This was the first time I had heard these things. Bob who was the one student who said he hated the meeting also said, “We talked a little too much.” While Frank who said the meeting was ok reported, “Andrea was playing with Loulou and it was out of control.” It was clear through reading these reflections that although many students were really enjoying these meetings there were some students off task. The graph below depicts the students’ responses to this question.
A Moment to Reflect
We sat down to have a class meeting about our first complete literature club and I asked the kids, “What do you like about literature clubs?” Many students told me that they really enjoy hearing from and talking to their friends to learn about how others view books. For example Bridgette said, “I think it’s really fun to talk about books and what you think about them with your friends.” Catherine shared, “I think it’s fun because you get to learn more about how to understand books and you get to share ideas that you have instead of just having to keep them all inside of you.” As the students continued to share their ideas I began to hear some themes emerging. These major themes were; its fun to talk about books with friends, enjoyment of sharing ideas, and learning from others.
Next, I asked the class, “What they would like to change about literature clubs?” A couple of students suggested changing the animal on the role sheets, but the major concern was about the after meeting reflection. Brian thought it would be a good idea to “write what we like about the book on the reflection.” I had to agree with the kids that something needed to be changed about the reflection before we began our new books. The current reflection was not easy for the students to understand and was really not giving me the information I was in search of. I knew that I needed to create a more kid friendly format that would allow the students to share their experiences of the meeting with me.
Finally after reading the entire book, I asked, “Why did Judy Blume write this book?” Elizabeth quickly responded, “To teach you that you don’t have to have freckles to look good.” Isaac nodded enthusiastically in agreement. Susan, a shy student who struggles with reading, quietly raised her hand to add, “It doesn’t matter how you look it matters about how you are on the inside.” As the recess bell rang and the students began to leave the room Catherine came up to me, wrapped her arms around me and said, “I love literature clubs!” The three weeks had quickly passed and all the students had finished their first chapter book! They were very proud and eager to find out what we would be reading next.
Cycle 3: The Introduction of Choice
After completing these first two cycles with the students as a way to scaffold their learning, we were all ready to have some choice in the books being read. In order to choose appropriate books for my students I needed to take many things into consideration. First of all, I needed to pick books that would be interesting to my third graders. I also wanted to make sure to have a variety of book topics for the students to choose from. I referred to many lists of suggested literature circle books and after reading some of these books myself, I began to imagine certain students wanting to read each book. I also needed to pick books that were at a third grade reading level while continuing to challenge and push the students. In October and November the school’s target reading level for third grade is a Fountas and Pinnell level N or O. Finally, the last thing to consider was how to get all the copies of the books I needed. With limited funds available to purchase books, I am able to get certain titles through a district lending library. The books I choose were The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Clearly which is a Fountas and Pinnell level O, The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes which is a level O, and 26 Fairmount Avenue by Tomie dePaola which is a level N.
As the students came into the room the following Monday the new books were displayed on a table. They immediately all wanted to touch and look at the books. I asked them to have a seat and I gave a short “book talk,” or explanation, of each book. After the book talks, the students were encouraged to take some time during silent reading to look at the books and think about which book they would like to read. I advised them to pick the book that most interested them but also one they felt comfortable and confident reading.
The next day, the students were given a choice sheet and were asked to number their choices 1-3. The students placed a one by the book they most wanted to read, a two by their second choice and a three by their third choice. Using these sheets I formed the groups trying to allow each student to read their first choice book.
Because we did not have a meeting that week, on Friday I told the students what book they would be reading and who would be in their group. As I read the names of the students assigned to each group, I couldn’t help but smile at Joe. He was sitting on the carpet with all his fingers crossed quietly repeating, “The Mouse and the Motorcycle, The Mouse and the Motorcycle.” When I told him that was the book that he would be reading, he jumped up and let out a short yell of excitement. He proudly took his book from me with a huge grin. The groups met in order to fill out their reading schedule and roll a dice to determine what their first role would be. I ideally wanted to let students choose their role but realized that at the beginning of the year this may prove to be difficult for third graders. I created dice with each role on one side in order to help with this task. The kids would roll and then take out their role sheet from the group binder for that week (appendix 9). Now all that was left for them to do was get reading!
The class continued reading each day Monday thru Thursday and then meet on Fridays. All students were expected to have completed work in order to attend the Friday meeting. Each book would be read over the course of four weeks (Lesson Plans October –November: appendix 10).
When all the students started reading, they all quickly noticed that these books were more difficult. They were now all expected to read more pages, answer questions on their own, and they had less support because not everyone was reading the same book. After noticing some students were struggling, I assigned them buddies to read with. They were to read the assigned pages together and then complete their role sheet independently. As the first couple of days passed and I began to check student work, I noticed that many students were not really reading the book. They were looking at the pictures, trying to understand what was going on, and writing something down on their role sheet. This really discouraged me. They were so excited to get their books but now weren’t even reading them. When I sat with these students and had them read some of their book to me they were able to do it. This told me that for most students the level of the book was not causing the problem but it was a sign of lack of effort. I spoke to these students in great depth about the importance of reading in order to be able to have an interesting discussion. We talked about what to do if they didn’t understand a part of the book. They responded with suggestions like reread, ask someone from your group, or read with your buddy. After this, the class assured me that they would try harder.
Even though there were some students who did not turn in their best work, there were many examples of students who did beautiful work. Andrea wrote great discussion questions while reading The Hundred Dresses. For example she asked, “Why do you think that the girls were being mean to Wanda?” Catherine, who was in Andrea’s group, wrote a wonderful summary of the first section of the book that really points out Wanda’s loneliness. Tina, a shy student who is on an individual education plan (IEP) for learning difficulties, worked with the speech teacher to finish her weekly work. Together they discussed what happened in this section and picked out passages from the chapters. They also practiced what Tina would say with her group the next day. This extra one on one support really helped to build Tina’s confidence before the meeting.
Friday arrived and it was time for another meeting. The students were eager to get started. They continued to use the same meeting structure that was used for the pervious book. For the most part, all students were on task and working. There were some students who became a bit unfocused and began to play.
After our last class meeting, I began to think a lot about the reflection. The students complained about it and I felt that I was not getting enough information from it was well. I decided to use a Garfield format similar to the reading attitude survey. I felt that this would be a little more third grade friendly as well has give me more valuable information. The students told me that this reflection was better and made more sense to them (Appendix 11). When asked, “How much did you enjoy your literature club meeting?” the majority (24 out of 28) of the students replied that they “loved it” or “it was the best part of my day.” This shows that they do still like working in these groups. Elizabeth noted on her reflection, “Everyone did an awesome job! Everyone was a good and fantastic listener! Good work!” It is a bit unsettling though because many students also wrote that group members were talking off topic or were playing during their meeting. This was the first time I had heard these things. Bob who was the one student who said he hated the meeting also said, “We talked a little too much.” While Frank who said the meeting was ok reported, “Andrea was playing with Loulou and it was out of control.” It was clear through reading these reflections that although many students were really enjoying these meetings there were some students off task. The graph below depicts the students’ responses to this question.
Although I believe that this new reflection is more effective, I couldn’t help but be a bit disappointed that some students were not working to their potential. I also decided to take pictures of each student during their meeting and then have them write what they might have been thinking or doing when that picture was taken. I chose this as another form of reflection in order to give each student a snap shot of their meeting to hopefully trigger some memories. This seemed to provide me with more positive feedback. These pictures really show how engaged all the students are and some of their writing also demonstrates this point. For example, Margalo writes, “I’m really curious of what is going to happen to Tomie dePaola.” Stephanie wrote, “We were all having a good time. We were all working very well.” Sarah stated, “ It was one of the best meetings ever.” Finally, Isaac wrote, “ I loved it! It was cool.” From these reflections my feelings began to change as I realized that many students were getting so much from these meetings. As we left class on Friday Tina, my shy student on an IEP, came up to me and said, “When I grow up I want to have my own literature club.” This comment, coming from her, made all the struggles well worth it.
On the following Monday the students quickly met with their groups to pick their new roles. Each student rolled the dice to determine what they would be working on this week. The one rule is that you can’t be the same role two weeks in a row. The routine was becoming very natural and so the students were able to get to work right away. There were no complaints as they settled into their reading. Yet after a couple of days I again noticed that some students were not really reading. They were attempting to complete their work by looking at the pictures or just read a few pages. Of course, this is not the entire class, but there were four students who did not attend the Friday meeting due to lack of completion of their reading. I have never had this many students not finish their work. I also realized from statements in the reflections that many students were beginning to play or not discussing the book. A few members of the “26 Fairmount Ave.” group complained that the students weren’t focused and getting along. Austin said, “ We were getting mad at each other. Not everyone shared because we were mad.” A couple members of “The Hundred Dresses” group complained that two girls were laughing and talking. Charlotte commented, “We didn’t get along because two girls were laughing, laughing, laughing, and talking. We didn’t even get to finish our literature club meeting.” Reading these reflections is very sad, but on a positive note “The Mouse and Motorcycle” group seemed to have a great meeting. Brian reported, “ It was fun and we laughed because it is a funny book.” Stephanie, who is in the same group, agreed saying, “We had a perfect literature club meeting and we had fun.” After reading this week’s reflections I couldn’t help but wonder, why are some groups more successful than others?
With all these different things happening I decided that it was important to sit down and talk with the class. When I asked them if they like literature clubs they all responded with an enthusiastic “yes!” They also agreed that it was impossible to continue with these meetings if students are not reading or participating. When I asked them why they thought this was happening, I received a variety of reasons. Joe said, “The iguana illustrator doesn’t use words so they think they don’t have to read.” Elizabeth continued by saying, “I think that they just want to get through it cause they think that it’s really long and they think it’s boring so they just want to get done with it.” I then asked them what we could do to help make sure that all students were reading and understanding the books. Elizabeth said, “You can ask someone from your group to explain it to you.” Andrea nodded in agreement and added, “When you read if you don’t get the book, you can read that part again. Then you can take some time to think about the book.” Charlotte also said, “Explain things when people ask you.” I also asked the kids if they thought that literature clubs were important and they wanted to continue. Andrea immediately raised her hand and said, “It’s not that you are just talking about a book with your friends but you are talking about a book and understanding the book better and at the same time you are hearing what other people are saying about the book.” With this comment and many others I realize that the students understood what we are doing and we needed to make a few adjustments for next week to continue this work.
On Monday when the kids came in they met with their groups to roll the dice for their new roles. Before they started to read, we sat down to have a short meeting. I reviewed what we had talked about on Friday. The students all promised to do their best reading and to ask their other group members if they have questions or would reread the chapters. I also assigned them buddies more strategically based on their reading abilities. In the past I had allowed students to choose their buddy, but here I targeted specific students who struggled with their reading and role sheet the previous week and matched them up with a student who excelled the week before. This seemed to have a strong impact on the entire class. There was a renewed energy in the room. Everyone worked hard and produced amazing work. Tina asked the questions, “How did you feel when Tomie walked out of the school?” Charlotte defined the words lavish, casualness and deliberately. Lance’s illustration was thoughtful and descriptive. Through their work, the students reminded me that they are not only capable of discussing books but also enjoy doing it.
On Friday the students were looking forward to their meetings. From their reflections I know that their meetings were much more positive. Stephanie said, “Everyone was so happy the entire time.” Charlotte, who was upset that her group was not participating last week commented, “This time everyone really participated!” From Greta’s picture reflection it is easy to see she is learning from others. She wrote, “Isaac wrote the word foundation but no one knew what it meant. It was cement.” I was so happy that the students were able to reflect on the previous week’s meetings and really make changes to make this meeting such a success.
As usual on Monday the students met with their group to pick their new roles. The kids were excited because this was the week that the groups would all finish their books. I think that all the kids were interested to know what was going to happen at the end. I encouraged the students to read with the buddy that I gave them the week before. I also reminded them to ask questions to clarify their understanding of the book and reread if necessary. This week the students again produced excellent work. They once again impressed me with their detailed summaries, thoughtful drawings, interesting passage picking, difficult word choices, and wrote “fat” discussion questions. The students really did pick up one some of the underlying meanings in the books that I was concerned they were missing. For example, Charlotte pointed out to me that the girls in The Hundred Dresses were not nice to Peggy when she was just trying to be their friend. She suggested that these girls should not worry about how many dresses she has and realize what a nice girl she is. These subtle messages were exactly what I was hoping that these students would pick up on.
Sadly on Friday I was sick and had to miss school. I knew that the students would be heartbroken if they couldn’t have the meeting they prepared for so they went ahead without me. The substitute reported back to me that she couldn’t believe how quickly each group began their work and everyone knew exactly what to do. Even though I wasn’t there, I know that the meetings went well from their reading reflections. Loulou a student who has missed a meeting in the past for not completing her work noted, “The book was sad because Wanda left because the other girls were mean to her.” I was excited to know that Loulou had really thought about the book and became emotionally attached to it. The other students reported that their group got along and everyone participated.
A Moment to Reflect
As this cycle ended and I reflected on it, I was very proud of my students. There were times when even I questioned whether this was too difficult for the students. I really questioned if asking third graders to run their own meetings and have meaningful discussions was really appropriate. I worried that the books I chose were too difficult or had too many underlying meanings. We also struggled for students to complete thoughtful work. I believe that strategically giving students a buddy helped to solve many of these problems. It seemed to take a lot of pressure off those students who had a hard time with the reading. Finally, I think I was also beginning to see some of the “newness” wear off and students settling in. They understood the routine and began to play more. I think making a few changes for our next cycle in order to continue to hold the students attention would help solve some of these problems. Although I had more concerns with this cycle than the others, my students have overall proved to me that they can do it.
Cycle 4: Celebrating the Holidays with Literature Circles
With only a couple of weeks before Winter break and the need to spice things up, I decided to make some changes to the structure of literature circles in my classroom. Because of the lack of time, I knew that it was impossible for the students to read another complete chapter book. As a way to celebrate and learn about the upcoming holidays, each student chose one picture book to read from four holiday stories. The students made their selection from; An Ellis Island Christmas by Maxinne Rhea Leighton, Latkes, Latkes, Good to Eat: A Chanukah Story by Naomi Howland, Too Many Tamales by Gary Soto, and The Day Before Christmasby Eve Bunting. These books were chosen due to the variety of cultural perceptions, an appropriate reading level for the students, and of course accessibility through the district lending library.
I introduced each of these stories to the students, through a short book talk. The students then completed a choice sheet numbering their preference with a number one next to the book they most wanted to read down to a four next to the title they least wanted to read. Students would be given one week to read the entire book and complete a role sheet and then a second week to complete a project based on the book they read. The students seemed very excited about this new structure and were eager to get started.
The following day when they returned to school I told them which book they would be reading and who would be in their group. They quickly met with their groups and rolled the dice to determine their role for the week. After this decision was made, they could start reading. The students seemed to read these books with relative ease. I’m not sure if I can attribute this to the additional support of pictures, a shorter text, or improved reading ability. Regardless of the reason, the students were reading and enjoying their books.
On Friday, we had a meeting following the same format as all the other meetings. There were many examples of excellent work being discussed at these meetings. Stephanie, Bob, and Catherine all read the book Too Many Tamales. Bob picked some interesting passages stating one was “a good part because it’s a family moment” and another because it’s “Some good writing because they use synonyms.” Catherine not only drew a very detailed picture but also added a quote from the book of the scene she drew. Stephanie’s summary of the book was full of details and was very well written. Joe is a student that has struggled at times to remember what he reads but there were no signs of this after he read Latkes, Latkes, Good to Eat. He really enjoyed the humor of the stories and this is evident through his drawing of a mountain of latkes as described in the book. Other students defined words such as drafty, solemnly, and bitter. Thoughtful discussion starting questions were written such as Bridgette’s question from Latkes, Latkes, Good to Eat, “Why did the woman say not to tell anyone the secret words?” Mary, who read The Day Before Christmas,asked her group “What is your tradition on the day before Christmas?”
As the students worked in their groups, I observed that they were on task and really discussing the book. In order to keep the mood of this meeting light, I decided to only have the students complete a picture reflection and not the normal Garfield reflection. These pictures offer me so much insight to their meetings. Frank commented, “The meeting was fun although one student was missing. Lance was Dolphin Discussion Director and he had very good questions. His questions made everyone think about the book better.” Stephanie said, “We had a good discussion but I wish it could have been a bit longer cause we were the first ones to finish.” Greta’s reflection shows that she learned from the others her group because she says, “I was thinking about when the dad said at the end let’s go home so I thought that he meant let’s go home to Poland but I learned they were going to stay at their new home in New York.” I was happy to see that this misunderstanding was cleared up through the meeting.
The following week the students would be working to complete a project related to the book they read. All students had a choice between four types of projects. The choices were; creating a photo album with pictures and descriptions from the story, create a story puzzle to point out the major events in the story, to create a character journal written from the perspective of the main character, or to make a connection between the reader and a character or event in the story. The kids were so excited about these projects that I also had some extra options for them if they finished early and wanted to do another project. These extra choices were to create a character acrostic poem or to make a pop-up scene from the story.
The students prepared their projects throughout the week in order to be ready to share them with a group on Friday. The students really enjoyed working on these projects. The creativity flowed out of them and I promised myself I’d make more time for them to work on projects like this with future books. On Friday, I assigned students to groups of four students each having read a different book. Each person told a little bit about their book and then shared their project. These share sessions really encouraged the kids to want to read another of the book choices during independent reading time. Some examples of their projects are below.
This is an example of Mary’s journal entry of the book The Day Before Christmas. Mary often struggles to write but was able to be inspired by this project to create something so beautiful.
On the following Monday the students quickly met with their groups to pick their new roles. Each student rolled the dice to determine what they would be working on this week. The one rule is that you can’t be the same role two weeks in a row. The routine was becoming very natural and so the students were able to get to work right away. There were no complaints as they settled into their reading. Yet after a couple of days I again noticed that some students were not really reading. They were attempting to complete their work by looking at the pictures or just read a few pages. Of course, this is not the entire class, but there were four students who did not attend the Friday meeting due to lack of completion of their reading. I have never had this many students not finish their work. I also realized from statements in the reflections that many students were beginning to play or not discussing the book. A few members of the “26 Fairmount Ave.” group complained that the students weren’t focused and getting along. Austin said, “ We were getting mad at each other. Not everyone shared because we were mad.” A couple members of “The Hundred Dresses” group complained that two girls were laughing and talking. Charlotte commented, “We didn’t get along because two girls were laughing, laughing, laughing, and talking. We didn’t even get to finish our literature club meeting.” Reading these reflections is very sad, but on a positive note “The Mouse and Motorcycle” group seemed to have a great meeting. Brian reported, “ It was fun and we laughed because it is a funny book.” Stephanie, who is in the same group, agreed saying, “We had a perfect literature club meeting and we had fun.” After reading this week’s reflections I couldn’t help but wonder, why are some groups more successful than others?
With all these different things happening I decided that it was important to sit down and talk with the class. When I asked them if they like literature clubs they all responded with an enthusiastic “yes!” They also agreed that it was impossible to continue with these meetings if students are not reading or participating. When I asked them why they thought this was happening, I received a variety of reasons. Joe said, “The iguana illustrator doesn’t use words so they think they don’t have to read.” Elizabeth continued by saying, “I think that they just want to get through it cause they think that it’s really long and they think it’s boring so they just want to get done with it.” I then asked them what we could do to help make sure that all students were reading and understanding the books. Elizabeth said, “You can ask someone from your group to explain it to you.” Andrea nodded in agreement and added, “When you read if you don’t get the book, you can read that part again. Then you can take some time to think about the book.” Charlotte also said, “Explain things when people ask you.” I also asked the kids if they thought that literature clubs were important and they wanted to continue. Andrea immediately raised her hand and said, “It’s not that you are just talking about a book with your friends but you are talking about a book and understanding the book better and at the same time you are hearing what other people are saying about the book.” With this comment and many others I realize that the students understood what we are doing and we needed to make a few adjustments for next week to continue this work.
On Monday when the kids came in they met with their groups to roll the dice for their new roles. Before they started to read, we sat down to have a short meeting. I reviewed what we had talked about on Friday. The students all promised to do their best reading and to ask their other group members if they have questions or would reread the chapters. I also assigned them buddies more strategically based on their reading abilities. In the past I had allowed students to choose their buddy, but here I targeted specific students who struggled with their reading and role sheet the previous week and matched them up with a student who excelled the week before. This seemed to have a strong impact on the entire class. There was a renewed energy in the room. Everyone worked hard and produced amazing work. Tina asked the questions, “How did you feel when Tomie walked out of the school?” Charlotte defined the words lavish, casualness and deliberately. Lance’s illustration was thoughtful and descriptive. Through their work, the students reminded me that they are not only capable of discussing books but also enjoy doing it.
On Friday the students were looking forward to their meetings. From their reflections I know that their meetings were much more positive. Stephanie said, “Everyone was so happy the entire time.” Charlotte, who was upset that her group was not participating last week commented, “This time everyone really participated!” From Greta’s picture reflection it is easy to see she is learning from others. She wrote, “Isaac wrote the word foundation but no one knew what it meant. It was cement.” I was so happy that the students were able to reflect on the previous week’s meetings and really make changes to make this meeting such a success.
As usual on Monday the students met with their group to pick their new roles. The kids were excited because this was the week that the groups would all finish their books. I think that all the kids were interested to know what was going to happen at the end. I encouraged the students to read with the buddy that I gave them the week before. I also reminded them to ask questions to clarify their understanding of the book and reread if necessary. This week the students again produced excellent work. They once again impressed me with their detailed summaries, thoughtful drawings, interesting passage picking, difficult word choices, and wrote “fat” discussion questions. The students really did pick up one some of the underlying meanings in the books that I was concerned they were missing. For example, Charlotte pointed out to me that the girls in The Hundred Dresses were not nice to Peggy when she was just trying to be their friend. She suggested that these girls should not worry about how many dresses she has and realize what a nice girl she is. These subtle messages were exactly what I was hoping that these students would pick up on.
Sadly on Friday I was sick and had to miss school. I knew that the students would be heartbroken if they couldn’t have the meeting they prepared for so they went ahead without me. The substitute reported back to me that she couldn’t believe how quickly each group began their work and everyone knew exactly what to do. Even though I wasn’t there, I know that the meetings went well from their reading reflections. Loulou a student who has missed a meeting in the past for not completing her work noted, “The book was sad because Wanda left because the other girls were mean to her.” I was excited to know that Loulou had really thought about the book and became emotionally attached to it. The other students reported that their group got along and everyone participated.
A Moment to Reflect
As this cycle ended and I reflected on it, I was very proud of my students. There were times when even I questioned whether this was too difficult for the students. I really questioned if asking third graders to run their own meetings and have meaningful discussions was really appropriate. I worried that the books I chose were too difficult or had too many underlying meanings. We also struggled for students to complete thoughtful work. I believe that strategically giving students a buddy helped to solve many of these problems. It seemed to take a lot of pressure off those students who had a hard time with the reading. Finally, I think I was also beginning to see some of the “newness” wear off and students settling in. They understood the routine and began to play more. I think making a few changes for our next cycle in order to continue to hold the students attention would help solve some of these problems. Although I had more concerns with this cycle than the others, my students have overall proved to me that they can do it.
Cycle 4: Celebrating the Holidays with Literature Circles
With only a couple of weeks before Winter break and the need to spice things up, I decided to make some changes to the structure of literature circles in my classroom. Because of the lack of time, I knew that it was impossible for the students to read another complete chapter book. As a way to celebrate and learn about the upcoming holidays, each student chose one picture book to read from four holiday stories. The students made their selection from; An Ellis Island Christmas by Maxinne Rhea Leighton, Latkes, Latkes, Good to Eat: A Chanukah Story by Naomi Howland, Too Many Tamales by Gary Soto, and The Day Before Christmasby Eve Bunting. These books were chosen due to the variety of cultural perceptions, an appropriate reading level for the students, and of course accessibility through the district lending library.
I introduced each of these stories to the students, through a short book talk. The students then completed a choice sheet numbering their preference with a number one next to the book they most wanted to read down to a four next to the title they least wanted to read. Students would be given one week to read the entire book and complete a role sheet and then a second week to complete a project based on the book they read. The students seemed very excited about this new structure and were eager to get started.
The following day when they returned to school I told them which book they would be reading and who would be in their group. They quickly met with their groups and rolled the dice to determine their role for the week. After this decision was made, they could start reading. The students seemed to read these books with relative ease. I’m not sure if I can attribute this to the additional support of pictures, a shorter text, or improved reading ability. Regardless of the reason, the students were reading and enjoying their books.
On Friday, we had a meeting following the same format as all the other meetings. There were many examples of excellent work being discussed at these meetings. Stephanie, Bob, and Catherine all read the book Too Many Tamales. Bob picked some interesting passages stating one was “a good part because it’s a family moment” and another because it’s “Some good writing because they use synonyms.” Catherine not only drew a very detailed picture but also added a quote from the book of the scene she drew. Stephanie’s summary of the book was full of details and was very well written. Joe is a student that has struggled at times to remember what he reads but there were no signs of this after he read Latkes, Latkes, Good to Eat. He really enjoyed the humor of the stories and this is evident through his drawing of a mountain of latkes as described in the book. Other students defined words such as drafty, solemnly, and bitter. Thoughtful discussion starting questions were written such as Bridgette’s question from Latkes, Latkes, Good to Eat, “Why did the woman say not to tell anyone the secret words?” Mary, who read The Day Before Christmas,asked her group “What is your tradition on the day before Christmas?”
As the students worked in their groups, I observed that they were on task and really discussing the book. In order to keep the mood of this meeting light, I decided to only have the students complete a picture reflection and not the normal Garfield reflection. These pictures offer me so much insight to their meetings. Frank commented, “The meeting was fun although one student was missing. Lance was Dolphin Discussion Director and he had very good questions. His questions made everyone think about the book better.” Stephanie said, “We had a good discussion but I wish it could have been a bit longer cause we were the first ones to finish.” Greta’s reflection shows that she learned from the others her group because she says, “I was thinking about when the dad said at the end let’s go home so I thought that he meant let’s go home to Poland but I learned they were going to stay at their new home in New York.” I was happy to see that this misunderstanding was cleared up through the meeting.
The following week the students would be working to complete a project related to the book they read. All students had a choice between four types of projects. The choices were; creating a photo album with pictures and descriptions from the story, create a story puzzle to point out the major events in the story, to create a character journal written from the perspective of the main character, or to make a connection between the reader and a character or event in the story. The kids were so excited about these projects that I also had some extra options for them if they finished early and wanted to do another project. These extra choices were to create a character acrostic poem or to make a pop-up scene from the story.
The students prepared their projects throughout the week in order to be ready to share them with a group on Friday. The students really enjoyed working on these projects. The creativity flowed out of them and I promised myself I’d make more time for them to work on projects like this with future books. On Friday, I assigned students to groups of four students each having read a different book. Each person told a little bit about their book and then shared their project. These share sessions really encouraged the kids to want to read another of the book choices during independent reading time. Some examples of their projects are below.
This is an example of Mary’s journal entry of the book The Day Before Christmas. Mary often struggles to write but was able to be inspired by this project to create something so beautiful.
Frank is a true artist at heart and really loved working on these projects. This is one page from his photo album of the book Latkes, Latkes Good to Eat.
Bob choose to create a story puzzle of the book Too Many Tamales. In the story the main character is scared that she has accidentally swallowed her mothers ring. You can see the ring in the girl’s stomach below.
A Moment to Reflect
I feel that this format really worked for my class. I felt like it was a good way to continue our work with literature circles while still holding the student accountable for rigorous work and letting them use their creativity. I also think that this gave the students a chance to learn about how cultures celebrate their winter holiday. Isaac told me one afternoon, “I copied the recipe for latkes from the book and my mom said that we could try to make them this weekend!” He was so excited to try this new food and I was proud of him for wanting to try something different.
When I asked the students “Do you like doing these types of projects?” I got an overwhelming “Yes!” response. Frank said, “It was fun to explain the story and draw what I was thinking. You also get to make a cover and decorate it.” Elizabeth said, “It was actually fun and I liked how you could do the cover yourself and you weren’t told what you had to draw.” When I asked them, “How did you feel about reading picture books versus chapter books?” I got a variety of answers. Sofia said, “Reading picture books is easier because you can just look at the pictures but when you read a chapter book you have to imagine the story more.” Another student said, “I feel like I’m missing out on reading because there are not as many words.” Margola summed the general mood of the class by saying, “We are third graders and I think that we can gain more skills by reading chapter books.” I couldn’t have been happier that the kids really enjoyed the projects but also wanted to continue to read challenging books.
Recognizing our growth
At the end of my semester of study, I gave my students a final survey asking them questions about their experiences with literature circles and how they feel they have changed as a reader. I asked my students “Do you read more, less or the same as in second grade?” The majority (73%), said that they read more and 6 of these students said they read the same amount as they did in second grade. Of course, it is impossible to say that this increased amount of reading is due to the use of literature circles in our classroom but their enthusiasm for literature circles is equally impossible to ignore. As each new literature circle began, the students would cheer as I passed out their new books. They were genuinely excited to get their books and proud to be reading these chapter books. Many students have told me that they are happy with their higher reading level and enjoy reading more because the books are more interesting.
This end of the semester survey included the same question as the beginning survey regarding how students view themselves as a reader and their level of enjoyment of reading. I asked the students this question again:
What would you say about yourself as a reader?
____ I love to read and always have my nose in a book.
____ I’m forced to do it, but I enjoy it.
____ I don’t like it.
____ Other: ______________________________
I was less surprised to see that so many of the students (17 of 27) described themselves as loving to read and always having their nose in a book since many gave this response at the beginning of the year. I was more excited to see that no students described themselves at not liking to read or marking other. It again, is impossible to note if this change is caused by the introduction of literature circles but it is hoped that the exposure to a variety of authors and grade level books has encouraged the students to read and enjoy it more. The shift of responses can be noted in the graph below.
I feel that this format really worked for my class. I felt like it was a good way to continue our work with literature circles while still holding the student accountable for rigorous work and letting them use their creativity. I also think that this gave the students a chance to learn about how cultures celebrate their winter holiday. Isaac told me one afternoon, “I copied the recipe for latkes from the book and my mom said that we could try to make them this weekend!” He was so excited to try this new food and I was proud of him for wanting to try something different.
When I asked the students “Do you like doing these types of projects?” I got an overwhelming “Yes!” response. Frank said, “It was fun to explain the story and draw what I was thinking. You also get to make a cover and decorate it.” Elizabeth said, “It was actually fun and I liked how you could do the cover yourself and you weren’t told what you had to draw.” When I asked them, “How did you feel about reading picture books versus chapter books?” I got a variety of answers. Sofia said, “Reading picture books is easier because you can just look at the pictures but when you read a chapter book you have to imagine the story more.” Another student said, “I feel like I’m missing out on reading because there are not as many words.” Margola summed the general mood of the class by saying, “We are third graders and I think that we can gain more skills by reading chapter books.” I couldn’t have been happier that the kids really enjoyed the projects but also wanted to continue to read challenging books.
Recognizing our growth
At the end of my semester of study, I gave my students a final survey asking them questions about their experiences with literature circles and how they feel they have changed as a reader. I asked my students “Do you read more, less or the same as in second grade?” The majority (73%), said that they read more and 6 of these students said they read the same amount as they did in second grade. Of course, it is impossible to say that this increased amount of reading is due to the use of literature circles in our classroom but their enthusiasm for literature circles is equally impossible to ignore. As each new literature circle began, the students would cheer as I passed out their new books. They were genuinely excited to get their books and proud to be reading these chapter books. Many students have told me that they are happy with their higher reading level and enjoy reading more because the books are more interesting.
This end of the semester survey included the same question as the beginning survey regarding how students view themselves as a reader and their level of enjoyment of reading. I asked the students this question again:
What would you say about yourself as a reader?
____ I love to read and always have my nose in a book.
____ I’m forced to do it, but I enjoy it.
____ I don’t like it.
____ Other: ______________________________
I was less surprised to see that so many of the students (17 of 27) described themselves as loving to read and always having their nose in a book since many gave this response at the beginning of the year. I was more excited to see that no students described themselves at not liking to read or marking other. It again, is impossible to note if this change is caused by the introduction of literature circles but it is hoped that the exposure to a variety of authors and grade level books has encouraged the students to read and enjoy it more. The shift of responses can be noted in the graph below.
My students entered third graders in a unique situation having never formally read in English in school. After receiving their beginning of the year reading scores I was not surprised at how low they were. I was surprised though at the rate they were able to close this gap. Their December reading scores show vast improvements overall. Of my 27 students participating in this study, five students began the school year at grade level and remained at grade level. Sixteen of these students started in September below grade level and by December eleven of them were reading at or close to a third grade level. Five of these students are still struggling and are reading below grade level, but have improved from their beginning level. There were six students who began the school year reading above a third grade level and continue to be higher than grade level. Finally, there was one student who has not made significant gains in her reading level and remains below grade level. The graph below depicts these results.
Because there have been so many changes to the students schooling this year, it is difficult to determine exactly what has caused these changes. I do feel that the use of literature circles has helped to narrow the gap. The students were consistently asked to read grade level chapter books that at times were challenging for many students. They also read these books through a variety of lens by taking on a new role each week. Finally, weekly discussions allowed students time to deepen their understanding of the text.
In addition to the other changes the students have experienced as readers, I have also seen them become more thoughtful readers. I am often impressed when my third graders come to school with a new book by the same author as their literature circle book. Holding her library book with a huge smile on her face Catherine exclaimed, “Look what I got Madame! It’s by Beverly Cleary.” I have also had students choose to read French translations of our literature circle books or other books by these known authors in French. I believe that the exposure to a variety of books through literature circles has given this disposition to my students.
I have been very impressed by my students’ ability to make connections between books and their own lives. They often refer back to their literature circle books to compare characters of a story to a book previously read. They have also gone as far as to solve their problems with insights they have learned through their stories. For example, one day after lunch a few of the girls returned to class very upset saying that Andrea and Loulou were saying mean things to Charlotte during lunch. As we sat down to talk about this problem Charlotte told me, “I feel like they are acting like Peggy and Maddie from The Hundred Dresses.” This comment really hit home with everyone. You could see the sorrow in the other girls faces as they made this connection and realized the pain they had caused. A sincere apology was followed by hugs and a renewed respect for one another. Although this was a very serious moment for the students, I couldn’t help but be extremely proud. I had spent so much time concerned that my students weren’t really getting at the deeper meaning of the books we were reading and then they were able to make this connection. It showed me that although they may not have been ready to formulate discussion questions to demonstrate their understanding they had indeed understood. They were able to relate and connect the characters to their lives at this moment. It was a very powerful moment for me to see the many benefits that literature circles can have in an elementary classroom.
The table below is the brief overview of what we as a class took away from each cycle.
In addition to the other changes the students have experienced as readers, I have also seen them become more thoughtful readers. I am often impressed when my third graders come to school with a new book by the same author as their literature circle book. Holding her library book with a huge smile on her face Catherine exclaimed, “Look what I got Madame! It’s by Beverly Cleary.” I have also had students choose to read French translations of our literature circle books or other books by these known authors in French. I believe that the exposure to a variety of books through literature circles has given this disposition to my students.
I have been very impressed by my students’ ability to make connections between books and their own lives. They often refer back to their literature circle books to compare characters of a story to a book previously read. They have also gone as far as to solve their problems with insights they have learned through their stories. For example, one day after lunch a few of the girls returned to class very upset saying that Andrea and Loulou were saying mean things to Charlotte during lunch. As we sat down to talk about this problem Charlotte told me, “I feel like they are acting like Peggy and Maddie from The Hundred Dresses.” This comment really hit home with everyone. You could see the sorrow in the other girls faces as they made this connection and realized the pain they had caused. A sincere apology was followed by hugs and a renewed respect for one another. Although this was a very serious moment for the students, I couldn’t help but be extremely proud. I had spent so much time concerned that my students weren’t really getting at the deeper meaning of the books we were reading and then they were able to make this connection. It showed me that although they may not have been ready to formulate discussion questions to demonstrate their understanding they had indeed understood. They were able to relate and connect the characters to their lives at this moment. It was a very powerful moment for me to see the many benefits that literature circles can have in an elementary classroom.
The table below is the brief overview of what we as a class took away from each cycle.
