Lit Circles: Rebooted for CCSS and the 4Cs

LIT CIRCLES Rebooted

ForThe 4Câs And

The SEVEN Demands of Comprehension

These kinds of activities are

not rich enough to provide the 7 skills

The RICHNESS of Lit Circles

LIT CIRCLE PITFALLS

HOW TO NOT BREAK LIT CIRCLES

Do: Make all the kids do all the jobs, collaboratively

Do: Give work that is academic and skill based

Don’t split up the jobs

Don’t give unfocused, artsy jobs

Do: Refresh the form every 4-6 weeksDon’t keep the same form all year

Don’t make kids read the entire book before beginning any work Do: Have kids discuss where they are “so far”

LIT CIRCLE PITFALLS

Is it academic? Is it creative?

Is it interesting? Does it make kids better readers?

Do they enjoy the process?

Put your parent hat on, if your own child brought this lit circle home…..

Heed Mushashi’s words:

“The Way is in the

Training”

Or heed Gladwell:

Students will cheat if they don’t know

how to do the given task - Paraphrased

Or heed Marzano:

Great tasks in Lit Circles

The Training.

Kids do not have to read an entire book to begin

Keep the training fun - use pop culture items

Practice lit circles in class BEFORE letting them go home

Lots of 5 and 10 minute segments

WHY Statements rule: They have to explain WHY

Multiple defensible answers are required

Fast Reps.Picture Storybooks.

Commercials on

32 Pages

30 Seconds

The Training.

Use this form daily.

Watch the video or read the picture

book whole class

(Full size form on the next slide) Students work in groups of four

to do ONE quadrant at a time

All the students provided detailed,

written answers

The group then shares to the class

DIVERGENT answers are highly regarded

Summarize Characterize

Conflict Wishes

Somebody Wanted But So Then

Char vs Char

Char vs Self

Char vs Nature

Char vs Machine

Char vs Society

Description Actions Dialogue Interior Monologue How Society sees them

What 3 wishes would the character make? Tell why for each 1. Why: 2. Why? 3. Why?

The Quadrants. Summarizing.

Summarizing made easy.

1. Somebody: Who is the main character (protagonist)

2. Wanted: What does the main character want or need?

3. But: What gets in the way of the main character?

4. So: What does the main character do about it?

5. Then: What was the resolution of the story?

The Quadrants.

Summarizing made easy.

Char vs Char - Buzz LightYear vs Emperor Zurg

Char vs Self - Is Buzz a toy? Or not?

Char vs Nature - Buzz and Woody vs Scud (Sid’s Dog)

Char vs Machine - Buzz in the garbage machine

Char vs Society - The toys blame Woody for Buzz leaving

The Quadrants. Conflict.

Have students identify types of conflict as many as possible.

Pushing the definitions and trying is more important than being exactly correct.

The Quadrants. Conflict.

Great Examples!

TV Commercials. Conflict in 30 Sec.

Characterize.

Characterize. Characters DRIVE the story.

Description - MULTIPLE and UNIQUE qualities. (“brown hair and a smile” will not get it done) Actions - MULTIPLE and UNIQUE actions (“he’s nice”, “she helps people” = too generic) Dialogue - KEY things the character says + catchphrases (“Good morning”, “hello” = not rich enough0 Interior Monologue - What the character thinks about the problem OR other characters and their actions. (The character should think about the conflicts) How Society sees them - The key= NOT what you THINK (Number one error? What YOU think of the character)

Comprehension suffers without knowing characters

Characterize. Student Made Examples


NEEDS MORE DETAILS

those were good, but they lacked WHY statements….

The bonus: Wishes

What 3 wishes would the character make? Tell why for each

1. Why: 2. Why? 3. Why?

The wishes need to be relevant!

Divergence is encouraged

Full Bore Creativity

The bonus: Wishes

What 3 wishes would the character make? Tell why for each

1. Why: 2. Why? 3. Why?

THE WHY STATEMENTS ARE THE KINGS OF THIS WORK -

KIDS SHOULD PROVIDE REASONING IN A SENTENCE

Full Bore Creativity

The Training. Play 30 second commercials

Find commercials on

The Training. Play 30 second commercials

Download off YouTube. Optional

BUY-IN.

YOUR STUDENTS WILL ASK TO WATCH AND ANALYZE VIDEOS

OVER AND OVER

Note: This is “close watching” as opposed to “close reading” - but the skills gained are the same

Workflow. Getting kids working

The power of Lit Circles is kids talking about

literature, in small groups and sharing their observations

by recording them.


One

Two Three

Four

Five

Groups can all work on the same aspect and then share out to the whole group


One

Two Three

Four

Or, one person in each group can work on the same aspect and then share out to the whole group


Have strict timeframes.

Two to Five minutes.


Timeframes create intensity.

Text. Translating the skills

Have students read short passages and do the Lit Circles in class, in a controlled setting.

Text. Translating the skills

After they have had success in class - they can begin self-selecting books

to read independently

Building TEXT-TO-SELF Connections

Read a random article - find a:family, story, friend,movie, book connection

Text. Translating the skillsA key thing to teach for independent reading

TEXT TO SELF CONNECTIONSWe need to get kids connecting to books, not just reading what we tell them to read.

Give 6-8 students books to skim at their desks. Have them open a random page and find something, anything they

can relate to in the passage. Connections can be Text to Self, Text to Text or Text to World.

Then, they can write down their one thing and share it with their table group. Repeat a couple times.

This activity helps build text-to-self connections.

Activity:

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

The schedule.

Thursday

Friday

10 Minutes of group time - work on Characters SO FAR

10 Minutes of group time - work on Summary SO FAR

10 Minutes of group time - work on CONFLICT SO FAR

40 Minutes of group time - Share/Compare all categories

20 Minutes of whole class share and discussion

How do I know if they are reading the book?

Bad news: They aren’t

But you can fix that with “Why” questions

and Lit Circles

QUICK:

Define Anadiplosis

Anadiplosis

QUICK:

Write three sentences using Anadiplosis

Lit Log Name ___________________ Number________

Book Name__________________________________ Author________________________

Other Books by this author (series)______________________________________________

Publisher __________________________________ City___________ Copyright _________

Year ___________Number of Pages_____ Library of Congress Number_____________

Bibl iography

Literary Devices - find a quote, passage or paragraph which

i l lustrates 1 of each of the following:

Characterization- List 1 Example of each for the Protagonist(///Actions)

1Monologue___________________________________________________________________

2Description__________________________________________________________________

3Dialogue ____________________________________________________________________

4 Actions_____________________________________________________________________

Analogy - A resemblance between similar things - Kitchen=Galley, car key is like a light switch , Babe Ruth

was the Michael Jordan of baseball (metaphor does not use like or as)

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

Theme - The simplified message of the story: Star Wars- the Jedi battle the Sith, Sandlot- Boys growing up

loving baseball.

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

Stereotype - Judging things by their looks - sometimes it is true and sometimes it is wrong.

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

Foreshadowing - the author gives you hint that something good or bad is going to happen - not just repeating

something, but a hint about the action to come....

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________

• Total Pages Read This Week _________________ Parent Signature _______________________

Genre of the book: Fiction Nonfiction Hist Fiction Humor Science Fiction Other ______________

Characterization- List 1 Example of each for the Antagonist

1Monologue___________________________________________________________________

2Description__________________________________________________________________

3Dialogue ____________________________________________________________________

4 Actions_____________________________________________________________________ in use since 1999

in use since 1999

Lit Log/Devices Name ________________ Number_______

Book Name_____________________________________ Author________________________

Other Books by this author (series)_________________________________________________

Publisher __________________________________ City___________ Copyright ___________

Year ___________Number of Pages_____ Library of Congress or ISBN Number_____________

Bibliography

Literary Devices:

Tools for authors and readers to be expert in story telling and reading.

Retell them or copy a sentence from your story that is an example of these devices:

Foreshadowing: A hint or bit of information that allows you to predict an ending. JAWS (dun,dun,dun...)

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

Irony: Something that works out to be unexpected. Slow guy wins a race. Smalls doesn’t know who Babe is and

spends the rest of the story trying to get the Babe Ruth ball back. Babe the pig is the best sheep dog.

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

Theme: The main idea of a story. Sometimes has a lesson or moral to it. Babe’s theme is to be nice and you’ll

be okay. Dances can have themes, like 50’s or disco.

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

Subplot: An extra story in a story. It is an extra thing that adds to a story, but isn’t always necessary.

Ferdinand wants to be a rooster. Rex in Toy Story wants to be scary, Buzz helps him.

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

Personification: Giving nonhuman things (toys, animals, a storm, a train) human qualities like speech

(talking pigs?), feelings (angry storms?), and so on.

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

• Total Pages Read This Week _________________ Parent Signature _______________________

Genre of the book: Fiction Nonfiction Hist Fiction Humor Science Fiction Other ______________

in use since 1999

Lit Log/Devices Name ________________ Number_______

Book Name_____________________________________ Author________________________

Other Books by this author (series)_________________________________________________

Publisher __________________________________ City___________ Copyright ___________

Year ___________Number of Pages_____ Library of Congress or ISBN Number_____________

Bibliography

Literary Devices:

Tools for authors and readers to be expert in story telling and reading.

Retell them or copy a sentence from your story that is an example of these devices:

Cliche- An overused idea, expression or word- Wazzup, Big alien fortress is destroyed by ragtag band of

rebels, anything by a boy band of 3 or more singers........

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

Hyperbole-A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect, as in I could sleep for a

year or This book weighs a ton.

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

Theme: The main idea of a story. Sometimes has a lesson or moral to it. Babe’s theme is to be nice and you’ll

be okay. Dances can have themes, like 50’s or disco.

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

Point of View: 1st Person (Uses I to describe the character)Use a sentence from the story here.

__________________________________________________________________

P.O.V. : 3rd Person (Uses he/she or they, them, it to describe the character)Use a sentence from the story

here. _____________________________________________________________

Personification: Giving nonhuman things (toys, animals, a storm, a train) human qualities like speech

(talking pigs?), feelings (angry storms?), and so on.

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________

Pages read this week _____________

Building the forms

Floating TextGoogle Draw

Building the forms

Floating TextDraw tools

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down Of the big lake they called 'Gitche Gumee' The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead When the skies of November turn gloomy With a load of iron ore twenty-six thousand tons more Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty. That good ship and crew was a bone to be chewed When the gales of November came early.

The ship was the pride of the American side Coming back from some mill in Wisconsin As the big freighters go, it was bigger than most With a crew and good captain well seasoned Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms When they left fully loaded for Cleveland And later that night when the ship's bell rang Could it be the north wind they'd been feelin'?

The wind in the wires made a tattle-tale sound And a wave broke over the railing And every man knew, as the captain did too, T'was the witch of November come stealin'. The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait When the Gales of November came slashin'. When afternoon came it was freezin' rain In the face of a hurricane west wind. When suppertime came, the old cook came on deck sayin'. Fellas, it's too rough to feed ya.

At seven p.m. a main hatchway caved in, he said Fellas, it's been good t'know ya The captain wired in he had water comin' in And the good ship and crew was in peril. And later that night when his lights went outta sight Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Does any one know where the love of God goes When the waves turn the minutes to hours? The searches all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay If they'd put fifteen more miles behind her. They might have split up or they might have capsized; May have broke deep and took water. And all that remains is the faces and the names Of the wives and the sons and the daughters.

Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings In the rooms of her ice-water mansion. Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams; The islands and bays are for sportsmen. And farther below Lake Ontario Takes in what Lake Erie can send her, And the iron boats go as the mariners all know With the Gales of November remembered.

In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed, In the Maritime Sailors' Cathedral. The church bell chimed till it rang twenty-nine times For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald. The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down Of the big lake they call 'Gitche Gumee'. Superior, they said, never gives up her dead When the gales of November come early!

Using the earlier materials, use this song to build a Lit Circle

I knew a man, Bojangles, and he'd dance for you in worn out shoes, with silver hair, a ragged shirt, and baggy pants. He would do the old soft shoe. He could jump so high, jump so high, and then he'd lightly touch down.

I met him in a cell in New Orleans, I was, down and out. He looked to me to be the very eyes of age as the smoke ran out, talked of life, lord that man talked of life, laughed, clicked his heels and stepped.

He said his name was "Bojangles" and he danced a lick right across the cell. He grabbed his pants, took a bitter stance, jumped up high. That's when he clicked his heels. Then he let go a laugh, lord, he'd let go a laugh, shook back his clothes all around.

Mr. Bojangles. Mr. Bojangles. Mr. Bojangles dance.

He told me of the times he worked with minstrel shows, through out The South. He spoke with tears of fifteen years how his dog and he, they travel all about. the dog up and died, dog up and died, and after twenty years he still grieved.

He said "I dance now and every chance a honkey-tonk, for drinks and tips. But most of the time I spend behind these country bars, you see son, I drinks a bit." he shook his head. as he shook his head, I heard someone say please, please, please.

A-Mr. Bojangles, Mr. Bojangles, Mr. Bojangles, dance.

Using the earlier materials, use this song to build a Lit Circle

Don’t teach books Teach SKILLS

CHOICE is the only

THING

Book levels DO NOT MATTER

Read together Share

Report alone

THIS WILL HAPPEN

Kids will see Irony, Paradox, Poetic Justice,

Foreshadowing and more in REAL LIFE

NOT just books.

THIS PROCESS IS MORE

IMPORTANT THAN

STANDARDIZED SCORES

LIT CIRCLES Rebooted

ForThe 4Câs And

Lit Circles: Rebooted for CCSS and the 4Cs

Education

Transcript of Lit Circles: Rebooted for CCSS and the 4Cs