Literature Circles Meaning, Establishment, Roles, Purposes, And Benefits.

Assembling students to analyze and share common knowledge of texts is known as literature circles. It makes it easier for students to easily assimilate or gain knowledge as it is the same peer group. Literature Circles can be done in many places as far as the students will be good at sharing ideas and increasing an unquenched quest for knowledge.

Most students tend to learn faster from collective reading, and creating literature circles will be a great help to them as it will help in enhancing and broaden their knowledge. In this outline, we will educate you on the meaning of literature circles, how to establish and implement literature circles, etc.

Meaning Of Literature Circles

Literature Circles is defined as the assembling of students mostly the same peers reading various texts. It’s a small group that is central to working together in analyzing texts and gaining ideas from them.

It commonly exists between students, they make up small groups to read and analyze texts, thus gaining much knowledge from them because it’s a collective thing, which means that each student will share his/her opinion about the text, therefore resulting in others gaining massively from it.

Establishing Literature Circles

Many things should be considered while forming a literature circle. This is because you can’t just wake up and start up a literature circle. Some of the major requirements for literature circles are:

• Researching: Make research on literature circles, and know more about it, so you won’t make mistakes. E.g. Knowing roles to assign to each member.
• Choosing Books: You as the facilitator organizer/teacher have to look for good texts that can impact the students positively, making it easier for them to flow with and which that will upgrade their vocabulary.
• Choosing Days and Times: As a good organizer, you need to set up a more convenient day and the exact time that can be suitable for the group. E., if it’s in the morning, afternoon, or evening,g is more convenient for the members.
• Choosing Location: Choose a very suitable and convenient location in which it will Sheldon, this is because it makes it easier to know your location right from time than looking for where to stay on that appointed day. E.g Libraries, Laboratories,s, etc
• Establishing Roles: You need to assign different roles to the members of the literature circle to make it more conversant and for easier assimilation. It will create good communication skills among the members as all of them will have roles to play, such as The Discussion Director, The Time Checker/Keeper, The Illustrator, The Connector, The Vocabulary Luminary, The Note Taker, Questioner, and Summarizer.

The Facilitator Or Teacher

The facilitator is the one who organizes the literature circles, he/she makes sure there is a free flow of communication among the students. The facilitator is in charge of introducing the lesson, assigning roles to them, choosing books, monitoring the group’s progress, assessing the,m, etc.

The Facilitator Or The Teacher’s Responsibilities

• Introducing literature circles: The facilitator is responsible for introducing the purpose of the literature circles.
  Choosing Books: The facilitator is responsible for choosing books that are to be discussed in the literature circles, they pick the best of the books suggested by the members.
• Modeling Discussions: The facilitator is responsible for modeling discussions that are most suitable for the members, they start discussions for the members to follow suit.
• Monitoring The Group Progress: The facilitator plays a big role in monitoring how the group is going. It monitors where there is leakage or where there are mistakes.
• Solving Problems: The facility attends to any member who is having a problem. It quickly resolves any problems encountered during the reading.
• Assessing Members: The facilitator accesses the members to find out of there are any problems or difficulties either in learning or other aspects.

Related: Nouns that start with N

Roles In Literature Circles

Many roles can be taken by each member of a literature circle. If different roles are assigned to every or most members, it will create a very sense of belonging and improve or spice up the learning, making it easier for the teacher.

Literature  roles and their responsibilities

• The Discussion Director: The discussion director is assigned with the responsibility of leading the discussions, making sure that the members are monitored and directed on how the discussion should hol,d and making sure the discussion is focused on the given text.
• The Time Checker/Keeper: The time checker timekeeper is assigned the responsibility of checking the time for each duties activity of the group. The timekeeper makes sure that the students keep on time.
• The Illustrator: The illustrator is assigned the responsibility of illustrating the texts through visual images. He/she illustrates the given text to make it easy to understand and assimilate. They can be more than one depending on the text.
• The Connector:The connecter is assigned the responsibility of connecting the texts with other texts, themselves, society, or even the world. It is very useful as it makes the students understand how they are connected to the texts, making them pick lessons from the test and also understand easily.

• The Vocabulary Luminary:The vocabulary luminary is assigned with the responsibility of checking ambiguous or confusing words, therefore,e breaking them down to the students. It is very crucial as it makes the students take note of some English grammar.
• The Note Taker: The note taker is assigned the responsibility to take notes of all that has been said, important text,s, etc making it easy for the students to take note of them later.
• The Fact Checker: The fact checker looks out for facts in the text and takes note of them. He/she checks and researches about them to know if they are really what is seen in the text.
• The Questioner: Though there is an open ground for anyone to ask questions where he/she is confused, the questioner is assigned the responsibility of writing down questions from the texts that are been read and asking the questions to the students to know if they are following the text.
• The Summarizer: After the group discussions, the summarizer summarizes the texts to the students, making it easier for them to grasp the text.

Check Also: The three main genres of literature

Literature Circles in Various Educational Settings

Literature circles can be practiced in various environmental settings depending on the students or peers. It can be encountered from elementary school to middle school, and from middle school to high school.

Things considered while implementing literature circles in various educational settings or levels:

Elementary School Level

In elementary school, the purpose or consideration of literature circles is to develop them in reading and comprehension, imbibing the love of reading and analyzing texts in them and encouraging peer communication among them.

The elementary school level is the first stage of their education, and when these things are imbibed in them through literature circles, they grow with them, which will result in making them exceptional.

Middle School Level

In middle school, literature circles play a big role in preparing students for great skills, literary analysis, and critical and logical thinking. Students can engage in various things such as exploring themes, engaging in character analysis, and improving them morally.

High School Level

Literature circles in high school make students explore different literary theories, and also engage in advanced research, communications, and from different perspectives to foster better relations between them and society. Literature circles in high school serve as great elevation to the students both logically and analytically.

Assessing Literature Circles

Assessing Literature Circles establishes qualitative students. This is because when literature circles are assessed, reviewed, and adjusted to improvements, it doesn’t only make it more effective, but rather makes it more efficient as it will be guaranteed that students will have a great elevation in both academics and communication, therefore been in co-operation with peers or fellow students.

There are two strategies by which literature circles can be assessed, they are Formal assessment and Informal Assessment. 

Formal Assessment

This type of assessment is conducted mainly for the exploration and evaluation of students’ abilities in understanding and helps them in applying activities that can enhance their growth of a student academically.

It is conducted by checking the student’s literary abilities and concepts such as in Debates, Presentations, Quizzes, Essay competitions,s, etc. With the formal assessment,t it would be easier to provide clear criteria with learning objectives, thereby encouraging students and enhancing them.

Informal Assessment

This type of assessment is where the facilitator carefully takes note of the group discussions, dynamics, and feedback during literature circles. The facilitator closely observes their academic intelligence, their communications, and their logical and analytical reasoning.

This helps the facilitator or teacher plan on how to tackle some of the problems that may have resulted in those who don’t meet the standard and plans on various ways to help elevate them to meet up with the given standards.

Literature Circles Challenges And Soutions

In as much as a facilitator is monitoring the students, the student’s peer groups don’t stop them from having challenges. Some challenges can mostly occur in those groups, some of them and their solutions are:

• Dominant Or Oppressive Group Members: Some members will likely want to dominate others, thereby oppressing them. You can call out those and educate them on co-operation and equality, thereby advising them on how to co-operation with others.
• Low Esteemed Group Members: They are some members who are often afraid to talk out either because of shyness, or oppressive. This set of students stays as if they are been maltreated because they are shy or afraid of others. All you have to do is call them out and educate them on the importance of co-operation, and impact high esteem in them, always give them roles to play in the groups, to make them more conversant.
• Assigning Roles: While trying to assign roles, many members of the group will like to take the same roles, just closely examine them and check out those that can handle the roles without mistakes.
• Time Management: Many people find it difficult in managing time, not because they can’t manage time, but because they didn’t plan up or draft their plans before carrying them out. If the literature circles are supposed to stop at an exact time, but you end up adjusting and setting the time longer, therefore results in lateness and fatigue. Here is what to do:
  1. While preparing for literature circles, draft your plans and fix a time for them, so that even after many things the groups will still end up at that exact time.
  2. Give the role of a timekeeper to one of the members of the group, and give him or her the required times for everything.
  3. Closely monitor and cut out anything that is not on your drafted plan.

Purposes Of Literature Circles

The purpose of literature circles is broad, but the main purpose of literature circles is to ensure that students are academically improved and to also create good communication skills between them, thereby giving them a sense of belonging.

Benefits Of Literature Circles

There are many benefits of literature circles which includes:
1. It enhances students academically
2. It helps improve students thinking logically and analytically.
3. It improves students’ communication skills.
4. It prepares future exceptional students, especially for society, country, and the world at large.
5. It helps to promote equality between the students and to avoid any discrimination between them.

Conclusion

Literature Circles helps in elevating students’ academic careers, improving comprehensive reading, and critical and logical thinking, thereby improving the values of education.

It also creates good communication and collaboration between the students, therefore enhancing the spirit of unity among them. It encourages students to learn and study, therefore enhancing their academic journey.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS)

Ques: What is Literature Circles?

Ans: Literature Circles is the assembling of students into groups, particularly for the study of texts.

Ques: What are the required things to do before establishing a Literature Circle?
Ans: There are many things you need to do before establishing literature circles, wincludeludes Researching literature circles, Choosing Books, Choosing Days, and andesimesoosing LocaLocationsd Establishing Roles.

Ques: What are the roles in literature circles?
Ans: The roles in literature circles are The Discussion Director, The Time Checker/Keeper, The Illustrator, The Connector, The vocabulary Luminary, The Note Taker, The Questioner, and The Summarizer.

Ques: What are some of the challenges of literature circles?
Ans: Some of the challenges of literature circles are Dominant Or Oppressive Group Members, Low Esteemed Group Members, Assigning Roles, and Time management.

Ques: What are the three benefits of literature circles?
Ans: The three benefits of literature circles are:
1. It enhances students academically
2. It encourages co-operation
3. It improves communication skills