Literature Circles in a Perfect World

This week we take a diversion from _Teaching What Matters About Literary Elements_ to discuss the application of literature circles in our classrooms.

Mr. Daniels describes for us the ideal situation in which a literature circle flourishes. Many of us look at the list of 11 key features and say, “Yeah, but in my classroom...”

Literature circles are new to me, yet I am anxious to give them a try. While there will be many obstacles for me to overcome, I hope to be able to make these discussion groups a reality in my class of 6-8 grade students.

Since this entire idea will be foreign to my students I will need to begin with training. The training I will need to include is as follows:

1) Explaining how these activities will work and why it is important -

2) Demonstrating a live or recorded group for students to visualize – this will be a challenge for me. I wonder if there is something on Youtube or Teachertube to serve this purpose.

3) We will need to try out a variety of approaches until we find what works best for this group this year.

4) I will need to debrief with students following each circle session – asking kids to notice effective practices.

5) I will need to continuously refine the ideas and provide on going training through mini-lessons and coaching.

Of course this is all easier said than done. Not many of us have total freedom in our classrooms to do just as we would like. The program that I work for is very traditional and I am wondering how I will make adaptations to the perfect scenario to make it fit.


1) Students choose their own books – Right off the bat I have a problem. My program dictates the novels that we will read each quarter. To overcome this I will look for supplemental poetry, short stories, or picture books that could be used as part of an inquiry unit, which would include the assigned novel. This will be a challenge for me. Are there lists put together already somewhere that give titles of texts based on themes or inquiry units? I need to find out. If you know of any, please comment below. I would allow students to choose among these supplemental texts. This would hopefully give them a small sense of ownership.

2)Small temporary groups are formed based on book choice – Since my entire class will be reading the same novel this would not work, unless they form groups based on the supplemental reading choices. That might work. Those groups would be very shout term. Maybe only one day.

3)Groups meet on a regular basis – I think this would be fine as my class meets regularly once a week. The challenge would be to make the circle a priority and be sure it happened each week.

4)Kids use written notes to guide reading and discussion – This will be interesting. My students have never taken notes on anything aesthetic in nature. They will struggle with this at first. They will also not be used to having a discussion that I do not lead. They will probably LOVE this. (So will I)

5)Discussion topics come from students – how refreshing. I think it will take a while for this to happen but I feel it will be great once the kids get the hang of speaking from the heart and not waiting for me to tell them what to discuss.

6)Teacher serves as a facilitator – Leading all conversation is a responsibility I will gladly delegate to the kids. I am sick to death of having to do all of the talking all day long!

I really like the idea of an online wiki or blog spot for discussion where face-to-face meeting is impossible. I learned about blogging this past summer and think it holds much potential for academic application. I would probably be the one posting a Socratic open ended question for students to reply to so the project would not be totally student directed, but I still think this would be a lot of fun and give kids a great reason to be on the computer.

The reality of all of these dreams is that for years we have been teaching students to look for efferent types of correct answers. Sadly, the idea of thinking aesthetically will be a drastic change for them. But nothing good comes easy. I am willing to put in the effort to make literature more relevant, deliver transfer, and teach students about life.