Lit. Circles
My lit. circles have a weekly assignment. The kids help set the number of chapters based upon the abilities of the group. During the week, they are responsible for reading the material in class and coming to the group with at least one question that they feel they can use in discussion about the section we are reading. They must write and answer that question in their Reader's Notebook. They also must write a wondering and prediction for the book in their Reader's Notebook. During the week, they find a favorite part of the book and read it to a partner to practice fluency. I meet with each group on Friday to see how the assignment is progressing. Each book group has a day that we meet to discuss their questions. I observe and take notes on who is participating and step in if I feel the student leading the discussion needs help. At the end of the session, the students write a short reflection on how the group went, their participation etc. It is difficult to do a basal and this type of literature group unless you really cut the number of days you are teaching it. My kids who are not in the lit. group are reading books from their leveled book bags. Possibly, if you introduced the story the first day to everyone and gave a basal assignment that could last several days, you could fit literature groups in between. We are doing Frindle, Teacher's Pet and Muggie Maggie for our first lit. groups. We also collectively came up with a set of literature group rules that we use to guide the operation of our groups.