Literature circles build excitement for books! Brown, M.

Posted by

Brown, M. (2001). Literature circles build excitement for books!  Retrieved June 30, 2008 from http://www.education-world.com/a curr/curr259.shtml.

An Annotation by Laurie Walsh

Brown reviews the beliefs of Harvey Daniels, author of Literature Circles: Voice and Choice in the Student-Centered Classroom, Katherine L. Schlick Noe, Ph.D., an associate professor at the School of Education at Seattle University, and Pam Chandler, a sixth-grade English teacher in California.  All three agree that literature circles are a fantastic discussion strategy.  The article discusses the discussion roles for lit. circles.  Noe states that “roles have the potential of undermining students’ natural conversations,” so the roles should be discontinued once the class is comfortable with the discussion format.  Chandler feels the teacher should eventually drop out of the lit. circle, but Noe believes that observing the groups is a valuable assessment tool.  Daniels and Noe believe groups should not be based on reading ability; Chandler disagrees because of student comfort level.  Brown finishes the article with all experts agreeing that lit. circles are effective for at-risk students, and lit. circles must provide students with choices.

Comments are closed.