ELA TPE i

The candidate models and assists students to integrate technology and media into language arts when conducting research, producing and publishing writing, creating multimedia presentations, and interacting and collaborating with others.

What is this?

I created this working document for non-fiction literature circles as part of a unit project on reading and writing for social justice for EDUC 362: Secondary Content Area Strategies. It includes a reading schedule and workspace for students to rotate completing different roles in preparation for each meeting, including Discussion Director (poses open-ended questions), Gist Giver (provides a summary), Word Wizard (looks up new or difficult vocabulary), Quote Finder (analyzes a specific impactful excerpt), and Rhetorician (defines effective devices used in a section).

Why did I choose it?

I chose this literature circle guide because it allows students to collaborate before and during class time using an online resource. They can divide up and carry out roles ahead of meetings, and having recorded their work for each role will serve them in several ways. They will have a repository of their group's ideas over the course of their reading, which will be useful for any summative assessments. Bringing written work as a starting point for their lit circle discussions will also make it easier to thoughtfully and complexly reflect on the text. 

What did I learn?

Researching for and creating this document helped me to define roles and practices for effective small-group study of non-fiction books. I was familiar with how to facilitate lit circles with fiction books, because it is more common and more work has been done on the types of analysis students can do in their various roles (plot, characterization, setting, etc). However, I had to dig deeper to find out how to divide up analysis of non-fiction books into clear roles the students could fulfill for an equally rich conversation.