Juli Kendall's Weekly
Reading/Writing Workshop Journal
A MiddleWeb Listserv Project
Members of the MiddleWeb Discussion List and other interested teachers
are joining together to explore the Writing Workshop and other ideas about
supporting young adolescent writers and readers. Juli Kendall, a reading-writing
teacher/coach in Long Beach, California, is helping moderate the discussion.
Juli also posts a weekly journal entry from her reading/writing classroom.
This year, Juli will focus on her efforts to integrate subject matter into
her reading and writing workshop approach. In her first
journal of the year, she explains the rationale behind this move and
some of her thinking about how she hopes to accomplish this goal.
Find out more about our project at our Reading/Writing
Workshop homepage. You'll find Juli's background article here.
Links to many of the tools created by Juli and her colleagues are embedded
in these journals. Most often, when you click on them, a PDF file will begin
to download. You'll find a list of the downloads here.
If you'd like to join the daily discussion that parallels Juli's Journals,
find out how here.
2003-04 Reading/Writing
Workshop Journal
Week #19
Strategies We're Using to Keep
Kids Engaged in Literature Study
You would not believe the reaction to literature study by some people. Kids
get involved in reading books, explaining what they are learning and reading
in small groups. The discussion will pick up speed and then, over the din
of the conversations, you hear, "Keep it down, guys." And the
kids will turn to each other with quizzical looks and find they have forgotten
what they were discussing. Sometimes I just want to say, "It's the
talking that's the important part!"
Right now, our conversations are continuing, and some of us are even on
our second book. We began our unit of literature study about informational
text with Journal #16, "Using Informational
Text for Literature Study and Book Clubs." As a part of the definition
we use for this process, it says, "Literature study is known by many
other names, including literature circles, literature clubs,
lit clubs, book clubs, and readers' circles."
Working on this unit, I realize that, not only are there many different
names for literature study, there are also many different organizational
structures for studying books. Configurations for reading, thinking, and
talking about books range from whole class to small groups to pairs to individual.
It seems there's something for everyone.
So here are a variety of ways I'm using literature study to engage kids
in a thoughtful discussion of informational text. Keep on talking!
--Reading aloud text for literature study with informational text
I use this approach with both the whole class and small groups. I find
it works particularly well with brief selections like poetry, picture books,
or very short stories. Before, during, and after my "read aloud"
selection, I involve kids in a discussion of what I'm reading. I want to
foster high-level thinking through modeling by making connections, questioning,
making predictions, visualizing, inferring, etc. It's an important way for
me to introduce students to a wide range of literature and support them
in thinking and talking about what is being read.
--Shared Reading for literature study with informational books
I use this approach more often with small groups because every one needs
to have a copy of the text to participate fully. Collections of poetry,
longer picture books, short stories, and short novels work well. I also
use copies of magazine articles, newspaper stories and essays, models of
writing by students, and my own writing. As I read aloud, each student has
a copy of the text so that everyone can enjoy the reading and talk about
the content, even if they are not reading at grade level.
--Small groups for literature study with informational books
This is how we are doing our current study of literature. There are
several different ways to go about it. In one procedure, teachers assign
the book or other text for the small group to read. What I prefer is to
give a choice of texts for students. They seem to be more motivated when
they choose. In both designs, students read independently and have small
group meetings to discuss the text. To encourage "on task" behavior,
as I work with one literature study group during the reading workshop, the
other kids are reading independently or writing in their journals.
--Information about literature circles
In many ways, Harvey Daniels is the father of this idea. He explains
it in his book, Literature Circles, Voice and Choice in Book Clubs and
Reading Groups, 2nd edition, (2002) by Stenhouse Publishers.
Literature circles are small, peer-led discussion groups whose
members have chosen to read the same story, poem, article or book. While
reading each group-assigned portion of the text (either in or outside of
class), members make notes to help them contribute to the up coming discussion,
and everyone comes to the group with ideas to share. Each group follows
a reading and meeting schedule, holding periodic discussions on the way
through the book. When they finish a book, the circle members may share
highlights of their reading with the wider community; then they trade members
with other finishing groups, select more reading, and move into a new cycle.
(p. 2)
This book is a great resource for setting up literature circles and using
roles for individual students working in groups. There's also a good website
for teachers interested in using literature circles. http://www.literaturecircles.com/.
In addition, the article, "What are literature circles?" http://www.literaturecircles.com/article1.htm
is available online. For even more about this, there's another article from
Education World, "Literature
Circles Build Excitement from Books."
--Information about book clubs
For information about how to do book clubs, read The Art of Teaching
Reading by Lucy Calkins. It contains everything you would ever need
to know about getting started with this format for literature study. I also
wrote a Reading Workshop Journal about how we do book clubs (Journal #31,
"Book Clubs are All the Rage in Our Class"). If you want more
information, here are two websites with some interesting resources:
"Face-to-Face and
Virtual Book Clubs & Reading Groups"
"Student
p;led Book Clubs"
--Literature study outside the classroom walls
Looking toward the future, I can see kids involved in Internet book
clubs, reading and discussing their books online. But my big interest is
in getting families to do literature study at home with support from school.
I've read about some wonderful activities where parents read the same book
as their child. Then everyone talks about the book and journals about their
responses to the text. I think this is the way to go p; kids reading
with families to discuss and respond to books.
As I come back to the present, reluctantly, I find that things are wrapping
up. Groups are finishing their first book and heading into their second
one. Everyone seems confident with the process. Even though some kids had
to switch their books initially, they are now settled in. This is definitely
worth a second time around.
SEE Juli's Curriculum Map for Content
Literacy - Unit Three
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