Teacher+Information+Page

Overview: The online Literature Circle is a digital extension of the more traditional Lit Circle model. One of the core 21st Century skills for students is that they learn how to successfully collaborate across a network, and this form of Lit Circles provides that opportunity.

To be effective, this Lit Circle format should involve at least three schools from various geographic regions. Individual classroom meeting times operate and look like very traditional literature circle classrooms. Book groups will meet on a weekly basis to discuss the reading and allow each person in the group to present the work they had prepared for the day. Throughout the week, the collaborative wiki will be used by students to collaborate on the content of their individual roles. While each student will be responsible for the group presentation at their school, the content knowledge, ideas, and preparation will happen collaboratively online. Asynchronous conversations can take place in either the discussion board of the wiki page or in Edmodo.

The role of the teacher is that of manager, coach, and facilitator. Teachers will check in on each group to ask questions, monitor, and encourage participation. Teachers should schedule regular times to facilitate conversation not only on a discussion board, but also in Edmodo. The only direct instruction during the project will be the use of mini-lessons to review student understanding the main elements of a story. This model tends to work best in a block schedule where students have a block between 60-80 minutes at least once or twice a week. While that much time is not required, the extended time period gives students an opportunity to complete work inside of class.

Audience: This literature circle environment is designed for students in 8th grade who are at least 13 years of age. These activities will utilize Google Documents and students should be at least thirteen years old to have Google Accounts (Some schools may utilize Google Apps for Education, but it’s imperative that students be able to share documents across GAE domains).

Objectives :
 * Communication and Collaboration- Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.
 * Participate as knowledge reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.
 * Visualize - make mental pictures or sensory images
 * Connect - link to their own experience, to events in the world, to other readings and media
 * Question - actively wonder, surface uncertainties, interrogate the text and author in a small group of peers
 * Infer - make predictions, hypothesize, and draw conclusions from the text or accompanying media
 * Evaluate - determine importance, make judgements, and weigh values
 * Analyze - notice text structures, author’s craft, purpose, theme, point of view
 * Recall - remember information, summarize, and retell

Literature Circle Schedule (Tentative)

Student Assessments: Students will fill out this reflection form at the end of each Book Discussion session. It will be used as a form of assessment as well as student/teacher feedback. The self-evaluation will also be used to record completeness of Lit Circle "role" work. || Teachers can use the following checklist to assess student participation during Literature Circle group discussions. || Students will create and deliver a class presentation which involves appropriate presentation components. ||
 * [[file:Reflections_self_eval.pdf]] || **Student Self Reflection**:
 * Discussion Group Checklist || **Discussion Group Teacher Checklist:**
 * [[file:Book Presentations.pdf]] || **Final book presentations:**

Student Feedback
 * (Daily/Weekly) Peer: ongoing student feedback in wiki discussion forums and book groups in Edmodo
 * (Weekly) Teacher feedback in wiki discussion forums. With a minimum of three teacher from different schools, instructors can "divide and conquer" when it comes to providing feedback and monitoring students participation in the online environment. For example, one teacher would be responsible for monitoring all of the roles of a specific book, or that same teacher could be responsible for check in on the same roles **across** book groups.
 * (Weekly) Teacher feedback in book discussions.

Technology Components :
 * Wikispaces - Main workspace, showcase, for student work
 * Edmodo - Student friendly social network for student communication
 * Glogster - The illustrator role will utilize this visual poster tool to display audio and visuals

Resources Job descriptions, rubrics, and student handouts were adapted or used from the following sources:
 * http://www.abcteach.com/directory/basics/reading/literature_circles/
 * http://www.burgettstown.k12.pa.us/725220823232627560/lib/725220823232627560/Lit_Circles.Role_Sheets.pdf
 * http://nysreads.org/Document%20PDF/NYCC%20Conference%20-%20April%2028,%202011/Using%20Text%20Discussion%20to%20Engage%20and%20Motivate%20Students%20-%20Janice%20Imundi/Literacy%20Circles%20Lesson%20Plan%20and%20Materials.pdf
 * http://english378.wikispaces.com/file/view/27+pagepacket+.pdf
 * Liz Slavens-7th/8th Grade Language Arts Instructor, St. John Lutheran School, Ellisville, MO

If you are interested in participating in this activity for the 2012-2013 academic year, please email Rob Jacklin at "rjacklin (at) stjstl (dot) net"