January 20- January 30 – Chapter 10
Literature Circle Inquiries
I feel a little overwhelmed after reading this chapter. I know that elementary school teachers must be familiar with a variety of literature so that literacy in the classroom can be enriching and meet the varied needs of the students, but the examples in this section make it seem that the teacher must be an expert on many genres and at many levels. Perhaps if I had been teaching reading recently and had kept up with children’s literature, recent published books, and leveled texts, I would not feel this way, but it does appear to be a daunting task to stay abreast of good literature. It makes me admire each of you so much because you do have a lot to keep up with to remain current in the field.
With this being said I still do appreciate all of the examples that are presented for literature circles in the chapter. I was particularly interested in the Literature Circles centered on bullying. Do you think that the teacher had a clear idea of where the kids' discussions might lead the groups’ inquiries? If not, I wonder how much daily planning is required by the teacher in order to provide the children with the plethora of books, poems, songs, etc. that are used for the literature circles. I do look forward to your thoughts on this chapter.
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After reading Chapter 10, I too feel a bit overwhelmed, Sue! The authors really slammed the Book Club Roles we do, and that hurts a bit! :) But, it was intriguing to see other possibilities for day to day interactions, and new ideas for the end-of-book celebrations. They certainly seem much more authentic and child-centered than other ideas I've seen and that I do, to be honest. It most definitely seems much more time-consuming than what my classes do for Book Clubs. The teacher on page 207 talks about making the Book Club members small booklets where they'll record their thoughts and drawings, as well as how he takes them home each night to look for evidence of thoughtful reading. Whew! I wonder when he has the time to grade those SS tests, reading quizzes, give QRIs/DSAs/mid-year assessments, etc. :) But I digress . . . I did enjoy (and plan on using) the first group meetings ideas on p. 218, where the students did a write-around "silent discussion" in their journals. They pass their journals to each other, after a few minutes of writing in them, answering a teacher-given question. Each group member answers each of the questions, and then the students share the input of the group. This was a powerful chapter with lots of good ideas!
ReplyDeleteLee, keep reading because the last chapter does put everything into perspective and makes the inquiry circles process not so overwhelming.
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