This cooperative novel study is done in conjunction with the 7th grade history emphasis on the Middle Ages. The teacher selects literature that is set during that particular time period. Students are divided into literature circles. Each member of the literature circle will have specific daily responsibilities. The assignments are designed to help each student interpret text and share interpretations with other group members. The responsibilities are also designed to address different learning styles. At the end of the novel study, each group will create and present a PowerPoint presentation about the book read.
Handout 9: Individual Evaluation Form for Literature Circles
Prerequisites (skills or background needed):
- Students need some background information about Medieval culture and customs. This is usually covered in the social studies class.
- It is helpful for students to be familiar with the computer keyboard.
- The students need to be familiar with the pre-formatted PowerPoint presentation slides available for them to use in their presentations. Pre-planning will assist the students to form mental images of the slides, enabling them to save time when they are working on their rough drafts for the presentations.
Procedure
Each day the literature circle will meet. Each person will share his or her insights concerning the homework assignment. The group leader will be expected to direct the discussion in an organized fashion. When the work has been shared and discussed, the group leader will make new reading assignments, and the responsibilities will be rotated. This procedure will be followed every day until the book has been completed
Teacher Component:
The teacher should read Voices and Choices in the Student Centered Classroom by Harry Daniels, a book about literature circles:
- The teacher needs to have read the books being used in the literature circles so that he/she can enter in the discussion with the students and assess their understanding of the text.
- The teacher needs to decide ahead of time how he/she will determine who will be in each circle.
- The teacher needs to set a time limit for the project. (10 days, three weeks, etc.) This will enable the students to set page limits for each assignment.
- The teacher will need to make copies of the responsibility sheets for each student and will need to model them for the students. Modeling is the key to the students' success.
Handout 1: Connector
Handout 2: Discussion Director
Handout 3: Illustrator
Handout 4: Literary Luminary
Handout 5: Summarizer
Handout 6. Word Wizard
- The teacher will need to design rubrics that will assess the cooperative learning experience and the PowerPoint presentation. These rubrics need to be given to the students before the project begins so that each student will have a good idea of the teacher's expectations.
- The teacher will need to monitor daily the progress of each literature circle.
Student Activities:
- The student will decide on a book to read and will become a member of a literature circle that will study his/her book.
- Each literature circle will decide on a member to be the group leader. The group will decide how many pages will be read each night based on the number of days set to complete the project. The group leader has the job of assigning each night's readings and will oversee the rotation of responsibilities. The following responsibilities will be assigned and rotated daily: discussion director, connector, summarizer, word wizard, literary luminary, and illustrator. The word wizard and the literary luminary jobs can be easily combined into one responsibility.
- Each student will hand in each assignment to the group leader and the group leader will compile the work into a group notebook using Handout 8: Literature Circle Notebook.
- Each student will participate in the creation and presentation of the PowerPoint presentation of the book studied by the literature circle. The PowerPoint presentation must consist of the following slides:
- title and author slide
- characters
- summary
- theme
- setting
- conflict
- group members
- reader ratings
The students work with more confidence if they draw their slides on a sheet of paper first. This also saves time because they have already decided what will be written on the slides. Students may enhance their presentations by using sound, clip art or pictures. However, the more audio and pictures used the more space required to store the file. A floppy may not be large enough. These presentation files may be saved to a zip drive, CD, or designated file on the computer.
Accommodations:
- The lesson activities may easily be modified to accommodate special needs students. Students may read orally within the literature circle to help any non-reader.
- Students who need help with the written activities may use tape recorders. Students proficient in computer skills can easily guide those who need one-on-one help with the PowerPoint process.
- The classroom teacher will decide on the final product expectations based on the specific needs of the individual student.
Extension Activities:
- Students can print out their presentations, staple them together, and share them with other classes or place them in the library to be used as book reviews by their fellow students and teachers. Slides could be printed individually or 6 sides per page to save paper.
- Students can print slides from their presentations and hang them on a bulletin board or in the hallway as an advertisement for good books.
- Students can create a classroom database or spreadsheet file that contains basic information about the books they have read as well as their comments about the books. This file could be used as a source of recommended books by students in the class as well as students in future classes.
Integration:
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This lesson is an integrated unit with history and language arts. Any class can utilize the literature circles. The teacher just needs to have the necessary books on hand.
Assessments:
- The teacher will conduct informal assessments daily by observing the literature circles at work.
- Each student will complete Handout 9: Individual Evaluation Form for Literature Circles to assess his/her participation within the group.
- Each group leader will complete Handout 7: Group Member's Evaluation Form for each member of the literature circle.
- The teacher will formally assess the group notebook. See Handout 8: Literature Circle Notebook.
- The teacher will formally assess the PowerPoint presentation using a rubric designed to assess the use of technology and creative writing. The following sites offer information about creating rubrics.
TeachNology
http://www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/rubrics
Kathy Shrock's Guide for Educators: Teacher Helpers
http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/assess.html
Rubric Construction Set
http://landmark-project.com/classweb/rubrics/rubric3_build.php3
Rubrics
http://www.techtrekers.com/rubrics.html
- Creating Rubrics through Ngotiable Contracting and Assessment http://www.interactiveclassroom.com/articles_006.htm This site discusses how students can take part
in developing rubrics for projects. This particular article offers information that would be useful to teachers going for national board certification.
URLs:
Curriculum Frameworks
Mississippi:
Sixth Grade, Seventh Grade, & Eighth Grade
- Communicate for a variety of purposes through different forms of writing using processes of reading, writing, listening, and viewing for an expanding audience.
- Complete projects and tasks in an organized and coherent manner.
- Read, listen to, and view multimedia sources to select and use information.
- Develop self-monitoring skills to work independently and cooperatively.
- Participate cooperatively while engaging in small group activities to analyze and interpret information, to make decisions, to solve problems, and to produce a given product.
- Discover the history and inherent beauty of cultural expression in language and literature.
- Read independently with fluency and for meaning using a variety of strategies.
- Read, analyze, and respond in written and oral language or other art forms to increasingly challenging literature and other resources.
National Educational Technology Standards (NETS):
- Apply productivity /multimedia tools and peripherals to support personal productivity, group collaboration, and learning throughout the curriculum. (3,6)
- Design, develop, publish, and present products using technology resources that demonstrate and communicate curriculum concepts to audiences inside and outside the classroom. (4, 5, 6)
- Select and use appropriate tools and technology resources to accomplish a variety for tasks and solve problems. (5,6)
TerraNova:
01 Oral Comprehension (Level 10,11)
Demonstrate both literal and interpretive understanding of passages that are read aloud.
Use writing or other means to respond to literal and interpretive questions about passages that are read aloud.
02 Basic Understanding (Level 10-21/22)
Demonstrate understanding of the literal meaning of a passage through identifying stated information, indicating sequence of events, and defining grade level vocabulary.
Write responses to questions requiring literal information from passages and documents.
03 Analyze Text (Level 11-21/22)
Demonstrate comprehension by drawing conclusions ;inferring relationships, such as cause and effect; and identifying theme and story elements, such as plot, climax, character, and setting.
Write responses that show an understanding of the text that goes beyond surface meaning
04 Evaluate and Extend Meaning (Level 11-21/22)
Demonstrate critical understanding by making predictions; distinguishing between fact and opinion, and reality and fantasy; transferring ideas to other situations; and judging author purpose, point of view, and effectiveness.
Write responses that make connections between texts based on common themes and concepts; evaluate author's purpose and effectiveness; and extend meaning to other contexts.
05 Identify Reading Strategies (Level 11-21/22)
Demonstrate awareness of techniques that enhance comprehension, such as using existing knowledge, summarizing content, comparing information across texts, using graphics and text structure, and formulating questions that deepen understanding.
Write responses that interpret and extend the use of information from documents and forms, and that demonstrate knowledge and use of strategies.
07 Sentence Structure (Level 11-21/22)
Demonstrate an understanding of conventions for writing complete and effective sentences, including treatment of subject and verb, punctuation, and capitalization.
Demonstrate an understanding of conciseness and clarity of meaning in combining two sentences.
08 Writing Strategies (Level 11-21/22)
Demonstrate knowledge of information sources, outlines, and other pre-writing techniques.
Demonstrate an understanding of the use of topic sentences, concluding sentences, connective and transitional words and phrases, supporting statements, sequencing ideas, and relevant information in writing expository prose.
Link and Feedback to Author(s):
Debbie Hurt, Tupelo Middle School, Tupelo, MS
hurtdp@tupelo.k12.ms.us
