Literature+Circles

Literature Circles in Schools and Libraries Many schools and classroom teachers use literature circles as an approach to reading and language arts. Traditionally, teachers have used a 'whole class novel study' approach, in which all students in one classroom read the same book and did activities about the novel they read. I have concerns about because this approach because it does not allow students to choose their own reading material, does not allow for individual or differentiated instruction (e.g. not every kid reads at the same level or has the same interest, so one novel is not going to work for every kid in a class), and it does not take into account the different genres and formats that different kids enjoy reading.

I much prefer approaches such as literature circles which allow kids to choose books themselves (often from a pre-selected group of materials, but not always), talk about their reading with a small group of peers, and read a variety of genres and formats. Essentially literature circles are the school version of the adult book club, where people read and talk about their books, which helps reading become a social activity, rather than a solely individual act.

This is all very 'school-oriented' and so the question becomes what does this have to do with youth services in public libraries? I would advocate that public libraries adopt a similar approach to their reading programs for children and young adults. Literature circles (or a book group approach) provide the time and space for reading to be social. This approach encourages children to talk about what they read in an informal (yet semi-structured) way. It encourages diversity in reading choice, it promote reading as a social activity rather than something that is done in isolation, it takes the focus off the adult in the room and puts the focus back on the kids and their reading choices.

If you plan programs in libraries, such as summer reading programs or children's book clubs, I would encourage you to take a look at some of these links and resources which will give you a good foundation upon which to develop programs that are about reading and interacting with children.

Harvey Daniels is the best known person who has been writing and thinking about literature circles for many years. His books are available at Coutts library. There are also some good websites available that might be of interest to you if this is a new idea--this is just a small sampling of what is available online on the topic.

**Check out:**

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literature_circle

http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/de/pd/instr/strats/literaturecircles/index.html

http://www.gecdsb.on.ca/Staff/Teachers/Just%20Read/litcirclewhy.htm

http://www.centralischool.ca/~bestpractice/litcircles/assessment.html

http://www.portageandmainpress.com/lesson_plans/plan_42_1.pdf

**Here are some videos that might also give you ideas:**

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**Sample literature circle discussion:**

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<span style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">**This is a literature circle group's culminating project on the book //The Giver://**

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