Customer Reviews

Moving Forward With Literature Circles: How to Plan, Manage, and Evaluate Literature Circles to Deepen Understanding and Foster a Love of Reading (Theory and practice)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a great book for those who are beginning to experiment with literature circles in the classroom. From start to finish this book gives ideal situations, practices and real examples. It also recognizes that literature circles often have many problems and frustrations and walks the reader through scenarios step by step. There are mini strategy lessons as well as reproducibles that are very helpful. I love this book and have already recommended it to many of my colleagues.

This book has good information and ideas. Howevever they promote a "discussion prompts" approach, rather than a "role sheets" approach. So if you're looking for help in teaching students about the Connector, Literary Luminary, Word Wizard and so on, this book is not it. However if the "roles" are not working for you, maybe this book would give you the different approach you need.

This book is good but Harvey Daniels book provides a better explaination. This is a great second resource.

I teach middle school language arts (6th-8th) and was looking for the next step in literature circles that would bring my students past their dependence on role sheets. This book is a must have for any classroom teacher that wants to focus more on the quality of discussion and interaction during literature circles. My students are more aware of what constitutes a good discussion and how to ask open-ended questions that add to the talk and draws out more from their peers. I highly recommend this resource!

I think I know a little bit about literature circles already... but it wasn't anything groundbreaking to me. I guess what I was looking for is maybe some evidence (anectdotal or otherwise) that would show how great Lit circles are (for elementary learning). I envision a class where the language arts program revolves around "book club" type activities... cuz I'm not really in love with the whole 'read-from-the-anthology', traditional way (as the basis for LA instruction). I think it's boring a lot of the time--for both student and teacher.

So in that regard, while I still thinks it's a book that has value... I don't think it was a MUST read.

First, I am one the authors' sisters. That said, these are the comments made by my daughter's teacher after getting this book as a gift.

"Where did you find out about this book? It is great, I love it."

I got to read bits of it as it was being written, and have since read the whole thing. It is helpful in assisting students to read to comprehend books, rather than just reading to write a book report or fill in the blank type tests.

This is a teacher-friendly book, as well as being based in recent research. The text is easy to read with useful appendices and bibliography.