I think the activity of literature circles is particularly easy for our group because we all love to read. Encouraging reluctant readers to pick up a book however, now that is an entirely different problem. I can see how literature circles would be beneficial to use in the classroom, mainly because it gives students choice and hopefully compels them to read. But how do I ensure they are reading?
In my own reading process I use a lot of strategies that I think would be beneficial to my students too. Formulating questions, doing character charts, marking my pages with sticky notes, or analyzing form and process, these can all be changed into activities in the classroom. It was also worthwhile to see what the other members of my lit circle were doing throughout their reading. With all our different methods, it was easy to come up with activities and lessons to go along with the book. If anything, I had too many ideas!
I think the key to effective instruction when doing literature circles though, is choosing what to focus on. For instance, with The Crazy Man I think I would focus mainly on characters and perceptions. With How Smudge Came I wold look and the idea of ability and disability, and with The Red Tree I would look at depictions of landscape and how they influence emotion. I do not want to limit my students, but I don’t want to overwhelm them either. I want students to recognize how and why we might look at these elements in a text, and how we can “read” the same elements in everyday experience. Life too is reading! Finding the connection between books and reality is where we inspire a passion for reading.
In class we’ve also talked about a number of strategies to accompany texts and units plans, all activities that could potentially deepen understanding for students. While I think literature circles could be useful, I also think that it needs to be carefully scaffolded to ensure students read and are thinking about the text. Perhaps this means giving students a question to discuss or reflect about at the end of each reading section, or perhaps an activity. Mostly I want my students to record their progress through the book and reflect on it later.
For my group, each of us approached the texts and different way and had different things to talk about, but we did not have the opportunity to meet as often as I would have liked to have those deep and meaningful discussions that I want my students to have. Our observations were often disjointed and not really coherent, which left us at a disadvantage when we did meet. If I did the same activity in my own class, I would ensure that reading time was repeated every day until the book was finished so students would have the opportunity to read and reflect with their peers more often. I am looking forward to trying out this experience with my future students.