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Showing posts with label Literature Circles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Literature Circles. Show all posts

Literature Circles Part 2!

And don't forget to enter the BIG giveaway at the end of this post! It's the last of my 12 Days of Teaching with Rachel! And you can win $50 in TpT product!

This is part two of introducing literature circles. You can read about part 1 here.

On my first post I talked about how I told the kids about literature circles, picked our books and decided how we would read.

The next step in getting our literature circles rolling along was learning about each job! I am using resources from all over the place and I will change my jobs as the year goes on - but, for now here are our jobs and the resources. (the names are from Amanda Nickerson's Lit. Circle Unit).

Snazzy Summarizer - Summarizing Page (click here to grab it)
Discussion Leader - Discussion Page (click here to grab it)
Bridge Builder (text to self/text/word connector) Amanda's Unit
Doodle Technician - Amanda's Unit

So, in all - we have a total of 5 jobs since we have a total of 5 students in most groups.

I introduced one job a day, in this order:

1. Doodle Technician
2. Bridge Builder (Text Connections)
3. Summarizer
4. Discussion Leader
5. Word Whiz

I did not just tell the kids WHAT the jobs was and said, "okay - good luck!" We did the job together.
I chose a quick and fun read - "The Third Grade Detectives #1" as a read aloud for the week.


This is how my little lessons went: I introduced the job - read a chapter and then passed out the job sheets to all students. We completed the job together. It was the perfect way for my to set the expectation for the job and for students to ask questions.

Each time I introduced a job, the students and I added information to a poster that they could use to help them complete their job to the best of their ability. 


The posters aren't anything fancy since I am always in a crunch this year, but they work. The posters are the students words exactly with a little guidance.
The pretty posters are from Amanda's store. I taped the white posters under her posters just to give a little more guidance of what I expect of them.
Also, by the bridge builder you'll see I added onto it. At this job students need to make 3 types of connections. Once, they do so I am asking them to tell me what happened in the text to make them make that connection. We are really working on providing evidence to everything we do!


Here is student work samples. I can't tell how helpful it was to take this process slow and bit by bit. I introduced one job a day - then, all students worked on the same job on the same book (my read-aloud). We came back and then had discussions on how to make it even better!



Each day that we worked on a job, we also worked on reading with our groups. 

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Now, where do I keep this stuff? I'll be the first to say... I can't organize anything, ever to save my life. Like... it's a real problem. I am that person that would lose their head if it weren't attached! (scatterbrain!)  Now-that I've said that... I am pretty proud of myself right now... it's organize and it 'ain't movin'!!


I put the job title on the outside of my drawers. I got these at Big Lots this summer for a whopping $25!! Yes, they're labeled with sticky notes and it'll probably stay that way this year. At the end of each week, I check the copies in the drawer - if I'm running low, I put more in there. I keep about 35 in each drawer at a time.

That is all for today - I could keep going, but you know... this post is long enough.


Please, let me know if you have any questions about this portion. I'd be happy to answer them!


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Implementing Literature Circles & Day 6!!

I have been toying with the idea to introduce Literature Circles all year long and doing a lot of reading about its benefits. I've read articles, pulled out the college books and purchased groups of books to get me going. I decided last week to just dive in and give it a shot. I was scared. I took it slow... and crossed my fingers that we didn't crash and burn. 


I introduced my kids to the way it works and told them this is something new that I think they'd really enjoy (they do). They said they were game and so we went with it! This post will be breaking down how I introduced literature circles to my students. If I told you everything I've done so far... we'd be here for years! I will post a little bit each day so we aren't all overwhelmed!

 Here are the books my students chose from:



Each group has 5 students in it and one group has 6. I have 26 kids (yep.. a lot - but, I couldn't imagine having any less)!

After students picked their books they read a chapter or 2 together just to practice and decide on how they would like to read. I really am taking this process slow.
 I am having them read the book at the exact same time so we are always on the same page.


After students read their book for the first time I just had them talk about it. Yep, that's it - just talk!!

I would go onto more... but, it would be a LOAD of information! So, I will be back tomorrow and tell you about how I introduced their first job to them using a read aloud!

Now, you can grab a literature circle freebie below by entering our Day 6 giveaway!!



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