Literature Circle Units, specifically Tall Tales, were created to enhance student reading and their involvement in the material rather than just reading the book.Students take an active role in their reading experience and are also grouped according to reading abilities.

The Tall Tales Literature Circles Unit was completed in the Fall of 2001 as an individual and collaborative effort.There were four people in the Tall Tales group including myself.We each completed a grade level study on Tale Tales and then worked together to complete the rest of the unit.

The Tall Tales Literature Circles Unit is geared to meet different grade levels.This product basically consists of research and preparation put into a lesson on tall tales.In the future, the group can teach the unit in the schools and since the unit is online other teachers can access it and implement in their own classroom.Students also meet the North Carolina Standard Course of Study in areas of reading and writing.

First of all, a lot of planning was put into making this unit suitable for classroom success and appropriateness.The unit is based on the curriculum and is identified according to grade level showing acknowledgment of what students know.(INTASC Standard 7)Literature Units focus on having students read books or stories and then discussing aspects of the book with other members in their group.Each time students will complete and share a different role(Discussion Director, Passage Picker, Character Sketcher, Word Wizard and other possible roles).The roles are created to ensure that students cover important literary elements and have different ways of formulating their answers.For instance, a student may be responsible for defining and illustrating vocabulary words in the story whereas another group member may discuss character traits and sketch the character.Students are not limited in their reading instruction.Student individuality and diverse learners are acknowledged in a positive way that encourages learning for everyone. (INTASC Standard 3)Discuss, writing, drawing and using computers are various ways that Literature Circle Units meet the needs of diverse learners.Students may use technology to reference examples of completed roles or even enter their own roles into a class database.While working in small groups each student gets the opportunity to complete different literature roles such as Discussion Director and Word Wizard.  Since students are divided into small groups, this allows students to be placed into reading groups according to their reading abilities.  This arrangement makes it possible to accomodate readers above, below and on grade reading levels.  The classroom is also full of diverse learners in respect to Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences.  As a result, Literature Circle Units allow students to use various learning styles that involve more visual, verbal, and interactive engagement than the common lecture style of teaching. (Technology Standard III. B)When students reference other roles online teachers can assess how well students can locate information and use their findings to complete their roles.Also, teachers can assess student technology by checking off completed roles entered into the class database and also by reading and correcting roles that have been submitted. (Technology Standard IV. C)