Mini-Lessons for Literature Circles

I LOVE to read, and it makes me super excited to think that I can influence how my students feel about reading! I learned a lot of simple strategies and activities in the “Mini-Lessons for Literature Circles” reading that I would like to implement in my classroom to hopefully encourage students to become active, interested readers!

Book Pass: I always hated when high school teachers assigned the entire class the same book to read because it always ended up with half the class hating the book and therefore not contributing to class discussion and activities. I really like the idea of allowing students to choose books that they really enjoy and can connect with, and a book pass is the perfect way to showcase all of their options because most high school aged kids do not know how to choose a good book (many go by the pictures on the cover, the paragraph on the back, etc.). I also think that having students fill out book review sheets for each book they preview is an excellent idea! I 110% want to have groups of students reading different books throughout the school year and I think a book pass would help to start the routine!

Drawing: For me, the most captivating part of reading a book is the stream of images that flash through my mind as I read. Therefore, I think that encouraging students to draw their thoughts about a book rather than write about them could drastically change how much they enjoy reading and analyzing texts. I liked the idea of modeling a “draw-aloud” to familiarize the students with the process, and I love that the reading offers additional avenues of visual expression than just pictures such as patterns, abstract things that represent a feeling/character/situation, a diagram/flow chart/story map, images from your life that the text reminded you of. The options are endless!

Save the Last Word for Me: Wow! I’ve never thought about this before, but the example in the reading where the teacher explains why he/she chose a passage first and then asks for student feedback really stood out to me. The students think that the teacher already explained the right answer, so they completely shut down and do not offer any additional ideas. This can happen not only when choosing a passage, but at any time in class! This section of the reading really intrigued me because it showed how strongly teachers’ can unknowingly keep their students from contributing to class and shutting down their ideas. I love the idea of “Save the Last Word for Me” in all aspects of class discussion so that students can first give their ideas without being made to feel like their answers are incorrect.