Lit Circles

I meant to post this last week, but then I got busy. So, you get it now!

Last week (and this week as well) I had the chance to witness a Lit Circle in action. The sophomores are reading To Kill a Mockingbird, and my mentor teacher is having them do a Lit Circle for it. I have heard of Lit Circles and I think I was sort of in one for a class last semester, but this was the first time I'd seen one executed well (my lit circle got off topic...oops).

The class has about five students in it and so a lit circle is a pretty good way to make sure that everyone stays involved. The students read on their own and then each one has a job. There is a connector, someone who makes connections to their life (and probably other works), a summarizer, who summarizes passages, a word finder, who looks up certain words that they are not familiar with, an artist, who draws out (stick figures are great, stresses my mentor teacher) certain sections, and a questioner, who asks questions of the text, and if possible answers them. Each student has an assigned role and must make six entries in a reading journal to complete the assignment for the designated section. Then, on lit circle day, the students get together and share their observations and questions.

I think this is a great way to get students to engage in the text. I think with most roles, they have to closely read the text and think critically about it. By rotating the roles, it helps to give the students a new perspective on things.

This is something that I will definitely use in my classroom. In a traditional lit circle, students have a choice of what to read in a group. Obviously, with five students, that won't work.  But, I think in a larger classroom, this would be a way to introduce differentiation and choice.

It was very nice to see how a lit circle is supposed to operate. I had heard that they work well, but I think there's always a bit of hesitation before introducing something into the classroom that you haven't seen before.