(note: I wrote and posted this last Fall after one of my early-morning commutes to campus)

Hello Darkness, my old friend

I’ve come to drive through you again
And journey to my school, oh so early
And you might just ask, “What’s your hurry?
5 am?
Is it really necessary?
Hit the snooze,
What could you lose?”

Heading to the school, I ponder
Would it matter if at all
I decide to “sick” day call
But then I think of all the danged sub plans
That I would have to leave for some old man
Who’d ignore them and let the children text
Right at their desk

And so I go, I sit, I grade,
The tests and quizzes that I gave.
And look around my room with content
It’s clean, it’s bright, it’s cozy
Time well spent.
And I think
“Yes, I’ll make it one more year,
Perhaps some tears,
But in the end,
I’m really doing a lot of good
Right here.”

iamlittlei:

I’m thinking about trying out modified lit circles in my science classroom next year. Can any of you weigh in on your experiences with lit circles, roles you’ve used, resources, general tips, scaffolding, student products, etc?

Ask box, submit, reblog, reply, etc. Thanks in advance!

I love lit circles! Here’s how I set them up in my room:

• I do a variety of things to set up the groups (and try not to repeat the same idea in a year just to keep things interesting) — sometimes I group the kids by reading level, sometimes I let them choose, sometimes I pass out mini Tootsie pops as they walk in the door and then they have to sit with the oranges, grapes, cherries, etc.
• The kids choose roles for themselves: discussion leader, motif spotter, question asker (of the group, and of me), and text annotator.
• I hold them accountable for their reading through a mixture of reading journals or quizzes or Post-It queries they hand me as exit tickets or vocabulary illustrations or QuickWrites during the course of our reading of the text.
• I’ve done book clubs with 10th graders where the kids were offered a variety of books on their reading level or above (The Lovely Bones, Maximum Ride, Gathering Blue, Copper Sun, and Lord of the Flies were a few favorites). 
• I’ve set up small groups for the reading of plays, novels, and other texts that are part of the IB curriculum for Juniors and Seniors (Oedipus Rex, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Outliers, Great Expectations).
• I scaffold in by doing an immersion activity for the text (that’s a whole other post all together, so let me know if you want specifics), we do historical research as context and I always start the reading with the kids, and then gradually release them to their own responsibilities. As they read on their own, I roam the room, dropping into groups to answer questions. For the more challenging books, I’ll make discussion questions for the day’s chapters and put them on the SmartBoard or print them out as reading guides. 
• For the summative assessment, since it’s IB, I usually combine an analytical essay that each kid writes on his or her own that focuses on a motif they marked for along with some kind of performance piece (an adapted scene, an extra chapter, a poem or song inspired by the text) that the small group works on and performs together. Or we do my favorite activity: the Socratic Seminar, where every kid chooses a different motif, and then teaches a small group by asking text-based questions about that motif (and getting their groups to extrapolate beyond the text as well, of course). 

By the time we’re done, the students know the books inside and out and have mastered the motifs so that they can talk and write and think about them with confidence.

Lit circles are good for everyone: struggling readers have less pressure to perform, but are given a task they can master (and gain self-esteem by doing so); leaders get a chance to shine, but not take over the entire class; and the kids in the middle can help keep the leaders grounded, encourage the lower readers, and shine by spotting the humble ideas that actually turn into the best epiphanies about the text of all.