Literature Circle Reflections

Today for the first time we went to Penny Smith's class to meet her sixth graders. They seem more like the fourth graders with whom I have been working than like 7th. graders. I bet, however that by May they will mostly be full time teens. Frances introduced us and we introduced our books. Frances went over the choices a second time for them and then asked them to vote on their first and second choices. (Ben did a backstory presentation which was really good because I don't think otherwise children in this generation and location could be expected to be familiar with Alcatraz.) They chose two books and then each student chose which of the two s/he wanted to read and everyone gets to read his/her first choice. That's cool!

This was our second visit to Ms. Smith's class. (She had all her walls covered with material about writing. I had to ask her about it.) Frances and Tom Rago role-played good and bad communication. There is a child in this class who is eager to respond to every question. That is one of the issues that Frances and Tom tried to illuminate in their role play. I think the role play was a really good idea for everyone; we are much more likely to have more co-operation if we all start out on the same page.

On our third visit to Ms. Smith's sixth graders we began reading our book. Three of our UNM number each read a chapter. At the end of the first chapter all the children sast there. I think it was Christie who asked them if they knew what role each of them was taking. They were very blank until Suzette pulled out her sheet with the titles of the roles and descriptions of them. She had noted next to each description the name of the student who had been assigned that role. So we passed her sheet around and kids refreshed their memeories. We talked a little about the roles. Then Devon took over as director and asked questions of the rest. The sixth graders were a little slow to answer but they did. Montell gave us a summary of that first chapter at the end of our brief discussion. He did a really good job of recapping and I actually found that helpful before going on. At the end of the second chapter we paused to discuss again and the kids were more ready to participate. I heard Viviana respond to a question of Devon's under her breath and encouraged her to say it outloud. I think each student actually did speak. Christie and I each asked a question when it seemed to bog down. I know now we are not really supposed to do that.

We talked after class about starting next week with going back over the rolls again and letting them know that it is their discussion group and also arranging at the beginning of class for someone to collect the books and clipboards and letting them know that the books and clipboards are there in their own classroom during the week and that they can certainly read ahead if they get time during class.

I missed today's class. I woke up feeling rotten and figured whatever it was I should not take it to class with 20 people. It might be good to have a class without me anyway. I feel like there are way too many adults in the literature circle. I will make arrangements to see the video on Maurice Sendak.

I think todays class went well even though we didn't have a lot of time. We had agreed in advance which adult was going to take each roll (except who was going to be the one who talked too much, but I figured I was a natural for that, right?). I thought Terrell's discussion director set a good example for everyone - showed them that the director doesn't just ask comprehension questions which is really what we were gettting before, but that he calls on the participants to play their roles. The kids are defintely interested in the book and they were all in favor of reading the next two chapters on their own and on their own time.

Suzette was the discussion director this time. I was sorry to see that she seems to have gone right back to asking the other students comprehension questions about the text, despite our demonstration. However, I have to admit she came up with some very interesting questions that really made me think! She did not call on the other students to contribute per their roles.

We did not get to do anything with our book this week. We arrived just in time to help a woman from the Farmington district office to administer some one on one tests. It was very much like running records and very easy. I got to do this with Viviana. She seems to just get better and more confident as she reads regardless of the fact that the reading is actually increasing in difficulty. It was a good experience for me.