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This instructional strategy will have students engage in Citation Circles to practice the action of correctly citing a text when speaking or writing about a text. One way that students can apply information from a text is to write or speak about the text. Citation Circles can help scaffold the process of articulating thoughts about a text while integrating source material. This discussion technique stems from Socratic Seminar but is more particularly focused on helping students craft sentences that effectively integrate sources into their writing and speaking. This skill is particularly important for crafting an argument. Citation Circles should be introduced and continually practiced until students begin to have a strong grasp of integrating sources into their writing and speaking.
PREPARATION:
Plan for the reading of the chosen text, including activities that will engage students in pre-reading and interacting with the text through multiple reads.
Establish a prompt or a series of questions for students to respond to as they refer to the text. The questions should be based upon the purpose for reading the text. Students can also prepare questions for discussion.
STEPS:
REVIEW GRAPHIC ORGANIZER: Explain to students how Student Resource: Citation Circle Observation Form will be used as a means for recording information.
FORM CIRCLES: Ask students to form an inner and outer circle. The inner-circle students will answer the questions posed by the educator or outer-circle students. The outer-circle students will use Student Resource: Citation Circle Observation Form to record information they hear.
WRITE: In the first column, students should record the last name, followed by the first name, of inner-circle students or the author of the text.
TAKE NOTES: In the second column, outer-circle students should briefly note what the inner-circle student said, which could be either their own opinion or on behalf of the author.
FULL SENTENCE CITATIONS: When all questions have been addressed in the Citation Circle, the outer-circle students should use Student Resource: Sentence Templates to write full-sentence citations based on what they heard the inner-circle students say.
OUTER CIRCLE: Next, ask the outer-circle students to share their full-sentence citations to cite the inner-circle students or the author they are representing. Make sure that each inner-circle student is cited at least once.
INNER CIRCLE: After each of the inner-circle students is cited by the outer-circle students, the inner-circle students respond, saying whether the citations were accurate reports of what they had originally said.
SWAP: Ask students from the inner circle and outer circle to switch roles and repeat the process.
REFLECT: Finally, debrief with students about the process, focusing on how they were able to apply their thinking about the text by speaking and writing.
VARIATIONS:
Depending on the size of the class, multiple Citation Circles may need to be carried out at once.
EXTENSIONS:
Students can collaborate to use their claims and citations to craft an extended response about the text.
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