Reading During Instructional Literature Circles

Students are grouped by reading level so that they can read appropriate text and work in small groups. The sequence of activity during instructional literature circles facilitates increased comprehension. Initially, students choose a job to complete before reading a section of the book. They choose this job before they read in order to organize their thinking while they read. Then students read the targeted passage. When students read the text they may be in a small group with the teacher, in pairs, or by themselves. Those students reading at or above third grade level should spend the majority of their time reading silently. Most of the time, the reading phase is completed during class time, but occasionally if can be completed for homework. After reading, students take about 20 minutes to prepare their jobs for the small group discussion about the text, which lasts approximately 30 minutes.

The teacher takes on a supportive role while students read, complete jobs, and discuss the reading. Because the groups are formed for instructional purposes, the teacher’s flexibility determines her role. For instance, she may choose to read aloud with the students who need more support. The teacher is there to scaffold, to teach "fix-up" strategies to those students who still are not reading metacognitively. She may model "thinking aloud," rereading, reading ahead to clarify, and other strategies. Once the text is read, purpose questions and predictions created by the students before reading are revisited.

The teacher’s guidance and support during reading prepares students to complete their written jobs. For example, if a student's job as Character Sketcher is to look for implied character traits, the teacher may stop the reading to discuss a paragraph in which a character is envious. The teacher may discuss with the students that the book does not explicitly state that the character is envious; however, through an examination of the character's actions, they can establish envious as a character trait. As students become aware of these reading strategies and skills and as they become more independent, the teacher begins to scaffold the instruction. Students read and constantly mark passages, questions, words, and character traits with "sticky notes." These "stickies" serve two purposes. First, using the "stickies" focuses students on their pre-assigned jobs while actively engaging with the text. In this way, students are able to think about their jobs as they read. Second, using sticky notes discourages students from writing in the books. As students engage in these activities they eventually become independent, and their reading behaviors become internalized.

Select the appropriate topic for more information about the instructional details, to return to the main findings of the Frye & Trathen report, or to return the Literature Circles Across Student Groups, Contexts, and Texts summary chart for this paper:

Frye & Trathen: Guided Reading with 4^th- and 5^th-Grade Students Using Instructional Literature Circles	Literature Circles Across Student Groups, Contexts, and Texts: Summary of Findings
Frye & Trathen: Formation of Instructional Literature Circles	Frye & Trathen: Reading During Instructional Literature Circles
Frye & Trathen: Completing Written Jobs	Frye & Trathen: Discussion of the Reading