Literature Circles

1. What are your overall impressions of implementation?

Overall, I thought the implementation of the literature circles went relatively well. My students enjoyed the project and it is something that I would recommend for others to try as well. It was quite a bit of planning on my end, but it was a good experience for the children and they liked the books.

2. How did the students react to the literature?

The students really liked the books that I had selected. I selected several Jan Brett books, because she has beautiful illustrations and we've been talking about senses so it corresponded nicely with that.

3. How did students react to discussion?

Students were very involved in the the discussion. I was working with a group of three students and they were all three so eager to share that it was a little difficult to make sure that everyone was heard.

4. How appropriate are Literature Circles for ELL's?

From my experience, literature circles are an excellent way to involve EL's in reading instruction. I think that ELL's can really benefit from this small group, targeted instruction with literature.

5. What changes would you make next time?

In the future, I would like to try this technique with older students, and I would like to let the students choose the literature that we study instead of me selecting it.

6. What suggestions do you have for other ESL professionals considering it?

I would recommend that you try it and see how it works for you. I did a lot of research about literature circles in general on the internet and there are a lot of great resources out there. I would recommend checking that out to see what you can find to give you some ideas and direction on where to start setting up a literature circle in your classroom.