This year, St Margaret’s Primary School launched Literature Circles, a new initiative aimed at enhancing students’ literacy and reading skills by offering an opportunity to facilitate rich conversations, observations and wonderings around texts.
Literature Circles occur three times a week for students in Years 3 to 6 during their reading cluster lessons with groups often made up of mixed year levels. One of the key tenants of Literature Circles is that students choose the text. Each fortnight the group members collectively elect to read the same text chosen from a book basket of different titles.
“It’s a little like a book club,” St Margaret’s primary teacher and literacy coach Lucardia Moulton said.
“Both are instructional strategies that actively engage students in reading and robustly discussing high-quality literature with their peers.
“The aim is for students to engage in sustained conversations about the text they have read with the discussion largely student-led,” Lucardia said.
What sets Literature Circles apart from a book club, however, is the definition of roles for each student in the group.
“Students select specific roles that will frame their thinking and sharing of ideas about the book. Often these roles involve a set task or graphic organiser which each student completes before meeting with the group. The task helps students to organise their ideas about the book and thus further scaffolds the dialogue between the group,” Lucardia said.
The roles students assume during Literature Circles include predictor, quizmaster, connector, visualiser, literary luminary and plot profiler. The roles rotate each session and once the girls become proficient in enacting these roles, the assigned roles dissipate with students weaving in and out of various roles more naturally and simultaneously in order to converse about the text in different ways.
Typically, teachers play the role of facilitator and teacher support and involvement is adjusted to reflect the students’ abilities and needs.
Literature Circles are a valuable way for students to develop a number of key skills and strengthen their critical thinking as they read, reflect and then lead the discussion about books.
The discussion is guided by student responses to what they have read while focusing on higher level thinking skills such as predicting, questioning, connecting, visualising, analysing author craft, exploring vocabulary and summarising. The student-led structure allows for shared leadership among students and invites diverse points of view.
Lucardia says that learning in Literature Circles is both visible and audible.
“Students develop their communication skills through listening and responding to the ideas of others: they build collaborative skill sets, confidence and independence amongst a wider peer group and take responsibility for their reading and improve their comprehension skills and strategies," she said.