LITERATURE CIRCLES: A WORK IN PROGRESS
Jaylynn Meyers
e want our students to be
independent thinkers and proficient readers,
but how do we do that effectively without
always taking the lead as the teacher? There
tends to be more than one right way to do
something even in education, but one way I
have found is to allow the students to take the
reins, and for me, literature circles are a way to
do that. According to Clark and Holwadel
(2007), Harvey Daniels was the first to write
about literature circles when he published a
book about them in 1994: Literature Circles:
Voice and Choice in the Student-Centered
Classroom. They have been used and varied
ever since. What really is a literature circle?
How do they work? How do they help students
become better readers and thinkers? How, as
teachers, do we make literature circles more
effective? Literature circles, once defined and
understood, are easy to implement, but they do
require constant modeling for students to use
them successfully and consistently.
What is a Literature Circle?
Think of a book club. A book club is
normally a small group of people who have a
fascination with a particular and want to talk
about it. That is the whole concept for a
literature circle. Rather than having to
participate in a class discussion where one or
two students may dominate the conversation, a
literature circle allows small groups of usually
three to four students to discuss a text (Daniels,
2006). Normally, the students select the text
they wish to discuss and then they become the
teacher. Daniels found that students were more
interactive in a literature circle than in a whole
class discussion and that by keeping the groups
small, students can more easily interact with
each other and respectfully take turns
discussing the text. He found there is “positive
peer pressure to join” (p. 13). Certo, Moxley,
Refitt, and Miller (2010) found “50 percent of
students were encouraged enough to begin
reading on their own for pleasure after
participating in a literature circle” (p. 244).
Other benefits of literature circles include
comprehension improvement and overall
improvement in “problem-solving and practical
decision-making skills” (Thein, Guise, & Sloan,
2011, p. 15).
How do Literature Circles Work?
Literature circles may be tailored to meet
the teacher’s preferences. Unlike some types of
student workshops, literature circles do not
have to meet every day. The teacher may ask
these circles to meet at different times during
the week depending on time restraints. This
allows for the responsibility of reading to be left
up to the student instead of the teacher
allotting time in an
Jaylynn Meyers
already hectic
teaches
teaching schedule.
Communication Arts
Students may read
at Summersville
the text at home
High School in
or during
independent
Summersville.
reading time
during class. Some
teachers allow circle time to be up to 60-minute
sessions twice a week (Certo et al., 2010).
Designated roles may also be given. Examples
based on Daniels’ 2002 model include
discussion director, connector who connects
text to personal life, vocabulary enricher, and
travel tracer who keeps track of setting and plot
(Thein et al., 2002). Experts strongly encourage
teachers to vary these roles often and involve