Literature Circles

The book discusses how children should be engaged in literature discussions. The best way that I have seen to do this is through Literature Circles. This is done by having several books selected and either assigning the books to the students or having them sign up for a book. Then, the students that are assigned to the same book get together and form a book club of sorts. They all read the book at the same pace. They are also assigned roles for each reading. One person illustrates a scene from the book. One person finds unfamiliar vocabulary words and looks them up and records them. Another summarizes the chapter. There are many other different roles that teachers can assign the students based on how many there are in the group. Then, after they have finished reading and doing their role, they will get together as a group and present what they did. They used this at my grade school that I went to as a child and we are also doing it in a college class that I am in. I find that this is very effective and really interests the students.