6. HOW TO NOT BREAK LIT CIRCLES
Do: Make all the kids do all the jobs, collaboratively
Do: Give work that is academic and skill based
Don’t split up the jobs
Don’t give unfocused, artsy jobs
Do: Refresh the form every 4-6 weeks
Don’t keep the same form all year
Don’t make kids read the entire book
before beginning any work
Do: Have kids discuss where they are “so far”
7. LIT CIRCLE PITFALLS
Is it academic?
Is it creative?
Is it interesting?
Does it make kids better readers?
Do they enjoy the process?
Put your parent hat on, if your
own child brought this lit circle home…..
11. The Training.
Kids do not have to read an entire book to begin
Keep the training fun - use pop culture items
Practice lit circles in class BEFORE letting them go home
Lots of 5 and 10 minute segments
WHY Statements rule:They have to explainWHY
Multiple defensible answers are required
13. The Training.
Use this form daily.
Watch the video or
read the picture
book whole class
(Full size form on the next slide) Students work in
groups of four
to do ONE
quadrant at a time
All the students
provided detailed,
written answers
The group then
shares to the class
DIVERGENT answers
are highly regarded
14. Summarize Characterize
Conflict Wishes
Somebody
Wanted
But
So
Then
Char vs Char
Char vs Self
Char vs Nature
Char vs Machine
Char vs Society
Description
Actions
Dialogue
Interior Monologue
How Society sees them
What 3 wishes would the character
make? Tell why for each
1.
Why:
2.
Why?
3.
Why?
15. The Quadrants. Summarizing.
Summarizing made easy.
1. Somebody: Who is the main character (protagonist)
2. Wanted: What does the main character want or need?
3. But: What gets in the way of the main character?
4. So: What does the main character do about it?
5. Then: What was the resolution of the story?
17. Char vs Char - Buzz LightYear vs Emperor Zurg
Char vs Self - Is Buzz a toy? Or not?
Char vs Nature - Buzz and Woody vs Scud (Sid’s Dog)
Char vs Machine - Buzz in the garbage machine
Char vs Society - The toys blame Woody for Buzz leaving
The Quadrants. Conflict.
Have students identify types of
conflict as many as possible.
Pushing the definitions and trying is more
important than being exactly correct.
21. Characterize. Characters DRIVE the story.
Description - MULTIPLE and UNIQUE qualities.
(“brown hair and a smile” will not get it done)
Actions - MULTIPLE and UNIQUE actions
(“he’s nice”, “she helps people” = too generic)
Dialogue - KEY things the character says + catchphrases
(“Good morning”, “hello” = not rich enough0
Interior Monologue - What the character thinks about the problem OR other
characters and their actions.
(The character should think about the conflicts)
How Society sees them - The key= NOT what you THINK
(Number one error? What YOU think of the character)
Comprehension suffers without knowing characters
28. The bonus:Wishes
What 3 wishes would the character make? Tell why for each
1.
Why:
2.
Why?
3.
Why?
The wishes need
to be relevant!
Divergence is
encouraged
Full Bore Creativity
29. The bonus:Wishes
What 3 wishes would the character make? Tell why for each
1.
Why:
2.
Why?
3.
Why?
THE WHY STATEMENTS
ARE THE KINGS
OF THISWORK -
KIDS SHOULD PROVIDE
REASONING IN A SENTENCE
Full Bore Creativity
37. BUY-IN.
YOUR STUDENTS WILL ASK
TO WATCH AND ANALYZE VIDEOS
OVER AND OVER
Note: This is “close watching”
as opposed to “close reading” -
but the skills gained are the same
38. Workflow. Getting kids working
The power of Lit Circles
is kids talking about
literature, in small groups
and sharing their observations
by recording them.
39. Workflow. Getting kids working
One
Two Three
Four
Five
Groups can all work on the same aspect
and then share out to the whole group
40. Workflow. Getting kids working
One
Two Three
Four
Or, one person in each group can work on the same
aspect and then share out to the whole group
46. Text.Translating the skills
A key thing to teach for
independent reading
TEXT TO SELF CONNECTIONS
We need to get kids connecting to books,
not just reading what we tell them to read.
Give 6-8 students books to skim at their desks. Have them
open a random page and find something, anything they
can relate to in the passage.
Connections can be Text to Self, Text to Text or Text to World.
Then, they can write down their one thing and share it with
their table group. Repeat a couple times.
This activity helps build text-to-self connections.
Activity:
47. Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
The schedule.
Thursday
Friday
10 Minutes of group time - work on Characters SO FAR
10 Minutes of group time - work on Summary SO FAR
10 Minutes of group time - work on CONFLICT SO FAR
40 Minutes of group time - Share/Compare all categories
20 Minutes of whole class share and discussion
48. How do I know if they are reading the book?
Bad news: They aren’t
But you can fix that
with “Why” questions
and Lit Circles
56. Lit Log Name ___________________ Number________
Book Name__________________________________ Author________________________
Other Books by this author (series)______________________________________________
Publisher __________________________________ City___________ Copyright _________
Year ___________Number of Pages_____ Library of Congress Number_____________
Bibliography
Literary Devices - find a quote, passage or paragraph which
illustrates 1 of each of the following:
Characterization- List 1 Example of each for the Protagonist(///Actions)
1Monologue___________________________________________________________________
2Description__________________________________________________________________
3Dialogue ____________________________________________________________________
4 Actions_____________________________________________________________________
Analogy - A resemblance between similar things - Kitchen=Galley, car key is like a light switch , Babe Ruth
was the Michael Jordan of baseball (metaphor does not use like or as)
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
Theme - The simplified message of the story: Star Wars- the Jedi battle the Sith, Sandlot- Boys growing up
loving baseball.
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
Stereotype - Judging things by their looks - sometimes it is true and sometimes it is wrong.
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
Foreshadowing - the author gives you hint that something good or bad is going to happen - not just repeating
something, but a hint about the action to come....
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
• Total Pages Read This Week _________________ Parent Signature _______________________
Genre of the book: Fiction Nonfiction Hist Fiction Humor Science Fiction Other ______________
Characterization- List 1 Example of each for the Antagonist
1Monologue___________________________________________________________________
2Description__________________________________________________________________
3Dialogue ____________________________________________________________________
4 Actions_____________________________________________________________________ in use since 1999
57. in use since 1999
Lit Log/Devices Name ________________ Number_______
Book Name_____________________________________ Author________________________
Other Books by this author (series)_________________________________________________
Publisher __________________________________ City___________ Copyright ___________
Year ___________Number of Pages_____ Library of Congress or ISBN Number_____________
Bibliography
Literary Devices:
Tools for authors and readers to be expert in story telling and reading.
Retell them or copy a sentence from your story that is an example of these devices:
Foreshadowing: A hint or bit of information that allows you to predict an ending. JAWS (dun,dun,dun...)
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
Irony: Something that works out to be unexpected. Slow guy wins a race. Smalls doesn’t know who Babe is and
spends the rest of the story trying to get the Babe Ruth ball back. Babe the pig is the best sheep dog.
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
Theme: The main idea of a story. Sometimes has a lesson or moral to it. Babe’s theme is to be nice and you’ll
be okay. Dances can have themes, like 50’s or disco.
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
Subplot: An extra story in a story. It is an extra thing that adds to a story, but isn’t always necessary.
Ferdinand wants to be a rooster. Rex in Toy Story wants to be scary, Buzz helps him.
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
Personification: Giving nonhuman things (toys, animals, a storm, a train) human qualities like speech
(talking pigs?), feelings (angry storms?), and so on.
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
• Total Pages Read This Week _________________ Parent Signature _______________________
Genre of the book: Fiction Nonfiction Hist Fiction Humor Science Fiction Other ______________
58. in use since 1999
Lit Log/Devices Name ________________ Number_______
Book Name_____________________________________ Author________________________
Other Books by this author (series)_________________________________________________
Publisher __________________________________ City___________ Copyright ___________
Year ___________Number of Pages_____ Library of Congress or ISBN Number_____________
Bibliography
Literary Devices:
Tools for authors and readers to be expert in story telling and reading.
Retell them or copy a sentence from your story that is an example of these devices:
Cliche- An overused idea, expression or word- Wazzup, Big alien fortress is destroyed by ragtag band of
rebels, anything by a boy band of 3 or more singers........
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
Hyperbole-A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect, as in I could sleep for a
year or This book weighs a ton.
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
Theme: The main idea of a story. Sometimes has a lesson or moral to it. Babe’s theme is to be nice and you’ll
be okay. Dances can have themes, like 50’s or disco.
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
Point of View: 1st Person (Uses I to describe the character)Use a sentence from the story here.
__________________________________________________________________
P.O.V. : 3rd Person (Uses he/she or they, them, it to describe the character)Use a sentence from the story
here. _____________________________________________________________
Personification: Giving nonhuman things (toys, animals, a storm, a train) human qualities like speech
(talking pigs?), feelings (angry storms?), and so on.
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
Pages read this week _____________
68. The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they called 'Gitche Gumee'
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy
With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more
Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty.
That good ship and crew was a bone to be chewed
When the gales of November came early.
The ship was the pride of the American side
Coming back from some mill in Wisconsin
As the big freighters go, it was bigger than most
With a crew and good captain well seasoned
Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
When they left fully loaded for Cleveland
And later that night when the ship's bell rang
Could it be the north wind they'd been feelin'?
The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound
And a wave broke over the railing
And every man knew, as the captain did too,
T'was the witch of November come stealin'.
The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
When the Gales of November came slashin'.
When afternoon came it was freezin' rain
In the face of a hurricane west wind.
When suppertime came, the old cook came on deck sayin'.
Fellas, it's too rough to feed ya.
At seven p.m. a main hatchway caved in, he said
Fellas, it's been good t'know ya
The captain wired in he had water comin' in
And the good ship and crew was in peril.
And later that night when his lights went outta sight
Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.
Does any one know where the love of God goes
When the waves turn the minutes to hours?
The searches all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay
If they'd put fifteen more miles behind her.
They might have split up or they might have capsized;
May have broke deep and took water.
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters.
Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
In the rooms of her ice-water mansion.
Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams;
The islands and bays are for sportsmen.
And farther below Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her,
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
With the Gales of November remembered.
In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed,
In the Maritime Sailors' Cathedral.
The church bell chimed till it rang twenty-nine times
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald.
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call 'Gitche Gumee'.
Superior, they said, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early!
Using the earlier materials, use this song to build a Lit Circle
69. I knew a man,
Bojangles,
and he'd dance for you
in worn out shoes,
with silver hair,
a ragged shirt,
and baggy pants.
He would do the old soft shoe.
He could jump so high,
jump so high,
and then he'd lightly touch down.
I met him in a cell
in New Orleans, I was,
down and out.
He looked to me to be the very eyes
of age
as the smoke ran out,
talked of life, lord that man talked of
life,
laughed, clicked his heels and
stepped.
He said his name was "Bojangles"
and he danced a lick
right across the cell.
He grabbed his pants,
took a bitter stance,
jumped up high.
That's when he
clicked his heels.
Then he let go a laugh,
lord, he'd let go a laugh,
shook back his clothes all around.
Mr. Bojangles.
Mr. Bojangles.
Mr. Bojangles
dance.
He told me of the times
he worked with minstrel shows,
through out The South.
He spoke with tears
of fifteen years
how his dog and he,
they travel all about.
the dog up and died,
dog up and died,
and after twenty years he still grieved.
He said "I dance
now and every chance a
honkey-tonk,
for drinks and tips.
But most of the time
I spend behind these country bars,
you see son, I drinks a bit."
he shook his head.
as he shook his head,
I heard someone
say please, please, please.
A-Mr. Bojangles,
Mr. Bojangles,
Mr. Bojangles,
dance.
Using the earlier materials, use this song to build a Lit Circle
