(RCOE) Appalachian State University
Artifact # 4
Literature Circles Unit Plan
B. Context
Students are put into groups based on their instructional reading levels.
Then all students read books that are in the same genre or subject area.
Students then discuss the ideas presented in their books by participating
in different jobs. These jobs are Discussion Director, Word Wizard,
Passage Picker, Character Sketcher, and Investigator. Discussion
Director leads the discussion; Word Wizard defines vocabulary found in
the book, and Passage Picker picks out passages that are important to the
story. Character Sketcher describes a character and draws a picture
of them, while Investigator finds more information about the subject, usually
using the Internet. I created this unit plan in my Language Arts
Class during my Education Block in the Spring of 2001. We put these
Literature Circle Unit Plans on the Web to be accessed.
C. Impact
Literature circles will be the main teaching strategy I use to introduce
literature to children. Literature Circles fill many of the competencies
in the NCSCS. I will use this literature circle unit plan and model
it for classroom use. In this unit plan, I have already perfected
this method. I reinforce this method on the students in my class
as a tool for reading and to make reading fun.
D. Alignment
This web-page includes a detailed Literature Circles Unit Plan with
many lessons for different reading levels. It will encompass these
Competencies:
E. Technology
· 12.1 - This activity gets
students to locate and analyze information and it allows them to communicate
their results because it divvies up certain jobs for the students to do
and report on while reading; each job having its equal importance.
· 12.4 - This artifact shows
my attention to the physical setting in the classroom and how it can be
used to facilitate active, collaborative work because it allows for different
class settings: Whole class, small groups, paired word, and individual
work.
F. INTASC
Standard One:
This artifact helps me understand the central concepts, tools of inquiry,
and structure of the discipline(s) I teach and can create learning experiences
that make these aspects of subject matter meaningful for students.
The literature circle is a comprehensive teaching tool aimed at meeting
not only reading skills but more importantly comprehension skills.
It encompasses many connections with the different roles that are represented
by the many jobs that the students can do while reading their individual
book(s).
Standard Three:
This artifact helps me to understand how students differ in their approaches
to learning and it creates instructional opportunities that are adapted
to diverse learners. The literature circles is an amazing artifact
to accomplish the diverse learning backgrounds, personalities, and abilities.
Different students learn in different ways and this artifact helps the
students' learn in a variety of means such as written, orally, visually,
individual, and group work.
Standard Four:
This artifact helps me to understand and use a variety of instructional
strategies to encourage students' development of critical thinking, problem
solving, and performance skills. The instructional strategies that
are represented here are evidenced by the many different jobs that each
and every student can do to comprehend the reading of a particular book.
The different instructional strategies represented are designed to get
the class to arrive at a common goal of comprehension and finishing the
book.