I had students rank choices out of about 10 books I choose- usually of a specific genre. Then I put them in groups based on their interests not ability. It was amazing to see how well the struggling readers contributed to the lit. circle conversations.
-----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Carmen Matsuura Sent: Saturday, December 13, 2008 7:51 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [MOSAIC] Literature grps. I'm new to literature groups and was wondering how some of you released students into being completely independent. I've read that students should be allowed to form their own groups and choose their own book. A colleague told me that she guided the grouping so that the readers were about the same level. Any suggestions? So far we have only read a single book, The Family Under the Bridge, using literature circles. One of the reasons for choosing it was because it would appeal to reading range of my fifth graders. Another reason was that I thought using a shorter text was better for introducing literature circles. I had planned to use The Secret School and Crispin for our next literature circle session (with plans to group the students closer to the book that was near their level). The students and I are enjoying literature circles and I'm a bit sad that we will be adopting a new textbook series soon. We were actually looking at teaching without a reading series. Wouldn't that be wonderful? We will be choosing between two companies; Literacy By Design and Reading Street. If anyone has advice on this please email me directly at: [email protected]. Thank you! Carmen _________________________________________________________________ You live life online. So we put Windows on the web. http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/127032869/direct/01/ _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
