The reality of being a high school English teacher is that even in upper level courses, even in AP Language and AP Literature we encounter students who don’t enjoy or even struggle with reading. One way to combat this is through literature circles or book clubs. But even more important in high school literature circles is to dump the literature circle roles in favor of building skills.
What are Literature Circles?
Literature Circles are structured book clubs for English classes. The concept originated in Harvey Daniels’s book Literature Circles: Voice and Choice in Book Clubs and Reading Groups in 2001. In the classic literature circle, Daniels proposes having students select books and take on literature circle roles and then discuss them in small groups.
One of the pitfalls of this structure is ensuring that students continue to work on developing skills which is where hybrid literature circles can come in handy in our upper level high school classes.
The Core Components: What are Literature Circles Made of?
Student Choice: The key to any literature circle is student choice both in choosing a book and in the jobs they take on.
Small Groups: Allowing students to work in groups of 3-5 based on a book they have selected increases the engagement. I generally let students choose who they want to work with in literature circles. This allows us to keep a dynamic that work for the students in the groups.
Student-led Discussion: At its heart, literature circles are about the student directed discussions just like adult book clubs.
Response to Reading: Students are working to engage in a natural way with the text they have selected through reader response journals or other written and discussion responses.
Understanding Literature Circle Roles
Traditional Literature Circle Roles
In the original conception of the literature circles, students took on roles like discussion director, literary luminary, word wizard, artist, summerizer, etc. The purpose of these literature circle roles was to divide responsibilities among the group members. Additionally, they were meant to ensure that different aspects of the book are considered.
Evolving Literature Circle Roles
As I have evolved my literature circle process, it incorporates different book club jobs based on a skills. The focus of these literature circles is based in common shared text. As a result, traditional literature circle roles seem less appropriate.
The truth be told, I often don’t have students choose literature circle roles in a hybrid-skills based model. (Grab the Literature Circle Framework here.) But when I do, the jobs tie into the skills we are focused on like Character Analyst or Symbols Searcher.
Transitioning to Hybrid Literature Circles
Using a hybrid model of book clubs allows you to use literature circle roles in a way that allows students to focus on building skills. And yet, you can keep the core benefits of literature circles in place. In it we use short anchor texts and mini lessons to focus on continuing skill development.
To learn more, grab the Hybrid Literature Circle Framework.
Additional Resources
High School Literature Circles: 7 Lessons After Nearly 20 years
How to Use the Literature Circle in AP Literature
