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STUDENT-CENTERED LITERATURE CIRCLES | High School English Teacher

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Online Literature Circles and Virtual Book Clubs

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Online Literature Circles and Virtual Book Clubs

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We're currently experimenting with online literature circles at our school.

Certainly literature circles, book clubs, and discussion groups aren't new tools for many teachers. For example, the Saskatoon Public School Board has some great resources on their website about different ways to run literature circles, as well as assessment and evaluation considerations.

However, the idea of running a literature circle online may be new for some teachers.

What do online literature circles look like?

Other teachers who are experimenting with Online Literature Circles

Five reasons why you should consider running online literature circles for your students.

- Our students were born in the digital age.

2. Using technology is often suggested as a strategy to help close the gender gap by engaging boys.

3. Online literature circles can provide students with an opportunity to post their work under pseudonyms.

4. Online literature circles have the potential to allow students from different classrooms in different schools to collaborate and discuss ideas because you don't have to physically be in the same space to have the book talk.

5. Professionally speaking, running an online literature circle can provide an opportunity for different teachers to do common planning and marking.

Things to think about when setting up your Online Literature Circles

Current challenges we're facing in implementing online literature circles with 8 different teachers and 11 different classes (Grade 7/8)

How do I create an online literature circle or virtual book club?

Challenges to getting (more) teachers to use Online Literature Circles and Virtual Book Clubs

- How to setup your own literature circles using phpBB software

Why did we choose Educircles as a name?

Why did we create Educircles?

how-can-i-set-up-my-students-on-educircles

What do online literature circles look like?

One of our colleagues implemented online literature circles at her previous school using free (open-source) bulletin board software ( phpBB). Students across several classes were divided into homogeneous groups based on reading ability. Novels were split into four parts for four weeks. Each week, students had to independently read their novel and participate in an online forum by answering questions posted by the teacher, as well as responding to their classmates. Once a week, students would physically meet to discuss the books.

Just as literature circles can look different from classroom to classroom, online literature circles can differ as well. The basic idea is moving the book talk from the physical classroom to the online classroom.

If you've ever taken an online course at a high school, college or university, this is essentially what we're talking about when we talk about online literature circles.

Students log into a website and post responses to the teacher and other students about the text they are reading. Although we're using the bulletin-board format for literature circles, you could also extend it to other subjects.

Other teachers who are experimenting with Online Literature Circles

Although not as common as in-class lit circles, online literature circles and virtual book clubs seem to be growing topics of discussion in some academic circles:

Sue Harris presented online literature circles at TechFiesta 2009 in San Antonio, TX. Miguel Guhlin, director of Instructional Technology for a large urban district in Texas posted some of her thoughts on his blog.

Terry Taylor (Lucerne Elementary Secondary School) presented "Online Literature Circles as an engaging way to learn" at the Rural Schools Conference in Oct 2008. They use Moodle as the platform for discussion and interaction. (Moodle and phpBB are both free, open-source solutions to consider for online lit circles.) If you visit the School District No 10 Moodle site, you can get a sense of the online literature circles from 2007 in their school board ranging from Grade 5/6/7 lit circles to grade 11/12 literature circles. In fact, Terry has a teacher forum discussing online literature circles. (You can download a brochure PDF and Powerpoint overview of lit circles and virtual book clubs)

Online literature circles can also serve as a vehicle for collaboration among staff and students between two different high schools. ("Students who had full access [to the online forum] were both more motivated to participate and entered more fully into thinking about and discussing their books [compared with students corresponding by US mail]")

Five reasons why you should consider running online literature circles for your students.

The idea of moving student conversations about books from just-in-the-classroom to an online forum is exciting and ground-breaking:
1. Our students were born in the digital age.
Using an online forum to talk about books means we can engage students in a way that a traditional classroom might not by tapping into their culture of texting, social networking and chatting online. (Using online discussion circles doesn't mean teachers have to accept informal language or internet slang, u know. Students can be told that formal language is a requirement.)
2. Using technology is often suggested as a strategy to help close the gender gap by engaging boys. 3. Online literature circles can provide students with an opportunity to post their work under pseudonyms.
Our students currently participate in online literature circles using a student identification number (a 9 digit number). Although student numbers can always be linked to a real name by the teacher, for the most part, students don't know each other by number. This means that their responses can be judged based on the merit of their ideas, as opposed to preconceived notions and stereotypes of who they are.
4. Online literature circles have the potential to allow students from different classrooms in different schools to collaborate and discuss ideas because you don't have to physically be in the same space to have the book talk.
I think experiencing the global village by chatting online with students from a different school, culture, or continent is an exciting idea for students. (Could you imagine video conferencing with a class overseas? Reading responses from students in a different time-zone?)
5. Professionally speaking, running an online literature circle can provide an opportunity for different teachers to do common planning and marking. The online nature of the work means it's easier to share student samples of work to discuss the question, what does a Level 3 (i.e. the state standard) look like in our school (or district.)
Online lit circles can serve as a vehicle to bring teachers together

to do common planning and activities (i.e. creating literature circles with students from different classes),

which can lead to common marking (i.e. marking student work from other classes in a genuine way because it impacts actual student assessment and evaluation, as opposed to a theoretical exercise),

which can lead to professional learning communities, discussions and debate about what a level 3 looks like,

which can lead to a better understanding of assessment criteria

which gets better communicated to the students

which can lead to better student performance

which can lead to an evolving and ongoing assessment process

which ultimately leads to student success.

Common marking and data-driven practices are supported by research to lead to student success. Having said that, moving towards common marking and data-driven practices is often met by resistance by teachers because it's seen as an add-on to their work, instead of a tool to do the work.

So online lit circles becomes a vehicle that can lead towards common marking and data driven decision making (i.e. SMART goals) which ultimately leads to student improvement.

Things to think about when setting up your Online Literature Circles

Here are some things to consider when setting up your online literature circle:

What will your groups look like? Will they be grouped by reading ability, interest, or randomly? Will the groups include students from the same class, across several classes, or across several schools?

Do you want your students to post ideas using their real name or a pseudonym for anonymity?

How often do you want students to post responses? Will you set up guiding questions, or do you want the students to set up their own questions?

How will you moderate the online conversations? Will you post your opinions as a teacher account or as a student account? (Sometimes, posting an idea as a teacher will sway student opinion because you're the "teacher." In an online forum, you could create a student account to post your ideas to see if that makes a difference.)

Will your students be allowed to use MSN speak: omg, i know. lol :), or do you want them to use more formal language with proper writing conventions?

Will your literature circles be online only, in-class only, or a mix of online and in-class discussions?

How will you ensure that all students can log in and participate in the virtual book clubs? Not everyone has access to the internet at home. Not all students are tech-savvy.

Current challenges we're facing in implementing online literature circles with 8 different teachers and 11 different classes (Grade 7/8)

We're still in the infancy of doing online lit circles at our school. Here are some of the issues we're grappling with:

figuring out the logistics with running the stories and groups;

setting up our students;

figuring out how to chase students for incomplete homework when they're in a different class;

finding time to moderate conversations and steering students towards formal language;

creating a living rubric that evolves and gets refined as our understanding grows;

finding an effective way to share marks (i.e. Google Apps?);

generating buy-in and interest from teachers.

discussions about how reliable these student samples are, given that parents and other family members can help at home.

figuring out how to make sure students who do not have computers or internet access at home, can still do the work.

Having said that, it's important to have other goals on the horizon to move us forwards. The idea of collaborating with other students and teachers in different schools, school boards, and countries is exciting.

How do I create an online literature circle or virtual book club?

There are several free software solutions that you can use for your online lit circles (i.e. phpBB, Moodle, WordPress, Edublogs, Wikispaces, Google Docs)

Different software platforms have different features. Some are easier than others to setup.

Some software platforms are relatively easy to set up and get started with (i.e. WordPress.com, Edublogs.org, Wikispaces, Google Docs)

Others offer more flexibility but require you to get your own web hosting plan or use the school's web host (if available) and install the open-source software yourself (i.e. phpBB, Moodle, WordPress.org)

At our school, we're currently using phpBB for our virtual book clubs, however Moodle is also popular (i.e. School District No 10 Moodle site)

We like phpBB a lot, but it's hard for the average teacher to set up.

Challenges to getting (more) teachers to use Online Literature Circles and Virtual Book Clubs

There are a few challenges to getting (more) teachers on-board with online lit circles at the system (school board) level. To introduce online lit circles at your school, you need three key players:

1. Someone (or a team) of teachers to design the questions, moderate the discussion, and assess the students.

2. A computer person at the school to help the teachers and students log in, use the software, manage the groups and access to forums.

3. Finally, you need an admin to install the software, help bulk upload the student accounts, set permissions, backup data, troubleshoot problems, and otherwise maintain the system.

Within an individual school, you can probably find several teachers in the first group, fewer teachers in the second group, but the bottle-neck will be finding teachers in the third group. (As a general rule, most teachers are too busy or lack the tech skills to do this.)

It's hard to imagine many school districts adding the maintenance of online literature circle software to their portfolios which is what it would have to do for the system to make this easily accessible to all teachers and so it becomes harder to generate a critical mass of teachers using bulletin board software for online lit circles.

Perhaps that's why we see companies like Wikispaces and Edublogs offering education editions of their software.

Hosting your own "private label" wikispace site in your school would cost $2000 per year ($4000 per year for the board.)

The Edublogs Campus solution to "centralize, create, control and manage blogs at your institution" starts at $900 per year. (Interesting, the Edublogs Campus solution is actually free, open-source software called WordPress Mu. However, Edublogs will administrate the software and make sure everything is up and running with plans starting at $900/yr.)

There are several teachers in the system who probably would jump on board with online literature circles through bulletin board software if it was easier to access. (For example, our board's technology consultants push wikispaces and edublogs because they're free, simple services for teachers.)

To our knowledge, no one has provided a service of making phpBB accessible to the education market (i.e. similar to what Edublogs has done with WordPress.) However, providing a service might be the easiest way of getting teachers to use bulletin board software.

If the back-end admin side is the limiting factor preventing teachers from using online literature circles, why not do that step for them?

It's easy for individual teachers to set up their own online literature circles using phpBB if they have their own web host. (We use Bluehost and you can easily install phpBB with the click of the button.) However, the average teacher is unlikely to shell out $115 per year for a shared hosting plan to "try" phpBB to see if they like it.

Sure, the school board might eventually be convinced to provide resources and personnel to administrate the bulletin board software, but on what kind of timeline?

And if the school board does come on board, it's not necessarily a scalable model to include other schools from different boards. (School District No 10 has a great Moodle site, but it's hard to imagine other school boards setting up online literature circles on that site.)

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Online Literature Circles and Virtual Book Clubs - Classroom Teacher

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We're currently experimenting with online literature circles at our school. Certainly literature circles, book clubs, and discussion groups aren't new tools for many teachers. For example, the Saskatoon Public School Board has some great resources on their website about different ways to run literature circles, as well as assessment and evaluation considerations.

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How do Literature Circles work? Artful Artist Responsibilities: Your job is to create pictures related to the assigned reading. It can be a cartoon, sketch, or diagram. You can base your drawings on feelings or emotions you felt while reading. Write a caption to describe your

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How literary circles work

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Literature circles in the elementary classroom are one of my favorite ways to boost students' reading engagement and get them excited about reading! After successfully launching literature circles in my 4th grade classroom, I knew that when I moved down to 2nd grade, I had to find a way to make literature circles work there as well. After establishing routines and creating new resources, my students THRIVED IN LITERATURE CIRCLES and I will never teach without them again!
The KEY TO LITERATURE CIRCLE SUCCESS is HOW you introduce them!
I have been fortunate enough to coach many 2nd-5th grade teachers on how to implement literature circles, and I have put together a FREE LITERATURE CIRCLES TRAINING that will teach you my step-by-step process to planning, organizing, implementing, and managing literature circles . You can access the FREE training on LITERATURE CIRCLES MADE SIMPLE HERE!
But if you want just a quick overview of literature circles before diving into the one-hour training, here's the gist....
SMALL GROUP ROUTINES ARE KEY!

Students have to know how to work in small groups in order for literature circles to run smoothly. In both my 2nd grade and 4th grade classrooms, students were well accustomed to working together in small groups. After the first two months of school (usually November) is when I began teaching the literature circles jobs. We didn't actually begin literature circles until December or January.

PRACTICE THE JOBS AHEAD OF TIME

Around November (second month of school where I live) I introduce the concept of literature circles.

I use a specific process to teach the different jobs.

I created six jobs for grades 2/3 and eight jobs for grades 4/5. The wonderful thing about the job sheets is that they are differentiated, so really, I could use what best suited my students' needs.

For primary grades (2nd/3rd), I introduced one literature circle job a week. For upper graders, I introduced two jobs per week.

We would use our grade level anthology to practice each job. After completing a reading section together, I would give all students the same job sheet and we would complete it whole class. This allows students to ask questions for clarifications. It also allowed me to model what a complete job sheet looked like vs. an incomplete job sheet.

Once we have gone through all the jobs, students are ready to begin literature circles.

Here are the eight literature circle jobs:

FORMING GROUPS

I have ran literature circles in the classroom with both homogeneous and heterogeneous reading groups. I prefer to group students who are reading at a similar level because this allows me to differentiate and challenge my students that need a push.

For 2nd and 3rd grade, I like to start literature circles by reading the same short chapter book as a whole class.

For 4th and 5th grade, students get to go "book shopping" and select their books and we begin literature circles.

We begin with a pre-reading activity to get students excited about their books ("Book Cover of Predictions" activity is my favorite).

Once groups have their books selected, I pre-plan out the pace of reading for each lit. circle group. I use a Student Planning Page to divide up the reading for each book, as well as pre-assign jobs. This makes transitions smooth from group meeting to group meeting, because students already know what job is next.

For older students, and ones that can work really well together, I have let them independently choose which job they want to do next. The rule is that they just can't repeat a job before doing all the others.

BEGINNING LITERATURE CIRCLES

For the first day of literature circles, I assign students their literature circle job and have them get together in their group to read the first chapter (or two). For 4th and 5th graders, this is usually the only time they read their book together in class. However, in 2nd and 3rd grade my structure is a little different and students have reading time in class and job completion time in class. Whatever they don't finish becomes homework.

After the initial reading together, students go back to their desks and independently complete their job. If they don't finish it in time, I assign it as part of their homework.

The next day, students meet together in their literature circle group and share their completed job sheets. Students use "Literature Circle Discussion Prompts" to use for any extra discussion time.

I use a Group Agenda, so students know their order and stay on track with the time.

When lit. circle time is up, I collect job sheets and give out the new jobs for the next portion of reading. I like to organize the jobs in a file crate that students can easily access the job sheets.

I assign the next chunk of reading for each group and students complete that independently during class reading time or as homework.

MANAGING LITERATURE CIRCLES

When students are meeting in their literature circle groups, I like to float from group to group to listen to their discussions. Remember, literature circles are student led, NOT teacher led!

The Discussion Director writes down notes on their job sheet to report about group time. I also use Group Rubrics so students can rate their group members' participation and job completion. These can be used towards participation grades or just as an informal check-in tool.

When groups finish up their books, I like to give them a final book project.

LITERATURE CIRCLES RESOURCES...

If you are ready to jump in and start literature circles in your classroom, I have created a comprehensive Literature Circles Made Simple resource, that includes ALL THE TOOLS you need to effectively launch literature circles!

This resources includes differentiated versions of each job sheet, so you can pick and choose what bests suits your students' needs! Group rubrics, planning pages, job slides, and more are all included to help you run literature circles with ease! There are also included Google Slides™ versions of each job sheet, planning pages, and more!

I LOVE literature circles and I LOVE that they can be done in both primary and upper grades! I hope you will give them a try in your elementary classroom!

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Literature Circles in the elementary classroom. How to do literature circles with 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th grade students.

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Share your ideas on how we can tackle this task online!

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Share your ideas on how we can tackle this task online!