A Child Called "It" discussion

For this assignment, I read the book A Child Called It. For me, this book was frustrating to read because it was so sad, but I often had to remind myself that this was someone's life and they ACTUALLY lived like this. With that mindset, I powered through the book into a world of new understanding for a future teacher like myself. This book greatly impacted my view of students in the classroom and what may be going on behind closed doors that teachers and others might not be aware of.


What are Literature Circles and why do teachers use them?
- Literature circles are created with small groups of students reading the same book and sharing their thoughts and ideas about what they have read so far in the book. Teachers may use this method to get students to collaborate in their learning of a certain subject or even bring together students with the same reading interests.

Each time the students meet, they are supposed to have read a certain portion of the book to talk about and each student has a different role for each section of the book. These different roles allow all students to participate and contribute so that no one person is left doing all the work or all of the talking. There are also many different roles to choose from, such as discussion directer or illustrator. This allows for different students to let their talents shine. One student may be very good at expressing themselves through words, while others may do better through pictures and images. This accommodates for all different styles of learning.

Literature circles can also be used to avoid forcing a whole class to read the same book (which I hated both in middle school and high school). This allows for a little more choice in what they can read and allows students opportunities to socialize with peers while also focusing on lesson content.

Explain at least five of the Key Ingredients of Literature Circles. (Focus on students and teachers)
- The first key ingredient to literature circles is having different roles for students to choose from while reading and discussing. These roles are vital to literature circles in order to accommodate for learning styles and also making sure every student is responsible for something each time the group meets.

The second key ingredient is for the teacher to be monitoring each group to ensure that everyone is doing their jobs and participating. This monitoring is also important in case students have a question about a role, a part of the story, etc.

The third key ingredient is that students are allowed choice in what they are going to read. If it is only over one book that the whole class is reading, you as a teacher are likely going to have many similar responses from students, since there is only so much one class can say about one book. This book choice also gives students some type of freedom in what they are doing in class. Students will be much happier reading if they got to choose the book they wanted.

The fourth key ingredient is for students to have a schedule for when to meet and when to have a certain portion of their book read for the upcoming literature circles meeting. If students do not have a schedule or a time limit to complete certain parts of the book, most of them will wait until the last minute to read it and complete their assignments.

Lastly, the fifth key ingredient is for students to open up in conversation about their book. Each meeting does not have to be scripted and strictly focusing on their roles. Yes, the roles help them start the conversations, but students also need to be encouraged to share their ideas and feelings about the book too. Whether they agree or disagree on their ideas of the book, this conversation will, hopefully, open up their eyes to how different people perceive different things in both reading and everyday conversation.

What was your favorite role? Why?
- My favorite role was the discussion director. During this role, I got to ask my peers questions about the book and see if they felt the same way I did or if they had a different viewpoint about something that happened or is going to happen in the story. I love starting discussions, or even essays, with questions to be answered. Questioning is the best way to get inside someone's brain to see how they are thinking without directly stating your opinion on it first.

How did you feel about this experience? Would you use this approach in your own classroom? Why or why not?
- I very much enjoyed this experience of literature circles. It was great to be able to have a meeting time, read the same portion of the book, and share our thoughts on what we have read so far. It also makes you feel not alone while you're reading. I could see how this could be a sense of security for some students to not be reading a book by themselves and not being able to talk about it with their peers because they have not read the book themselves. This is a great alternative to a whole class book reading. I would definitely use this in my own classroom, only I think I would let my students come up with the roles that we get to choose from as a class. Instead of handing them sheets of pre-made roles and having them choose one, I think it would be fun to have them come up with their own ideas of the different roles to appease all students and make it more personalized to our class.

Explain at least two ways to assess students when using Literature Circles.
- One way to assess students during literature circles is to informally assess from teacher observation. This would be the most common way to assess it because the teacher can go around the room and listen to each group and make sure every member of the group is participating. I would also assess them by turning in their role sheets. This is another good way to hold them accountable because they are writing down what they are contributing to the group discussion each time and also possibly recording the responses from other group members.