Artifact # 5
Context: This artifact was created in Literature in the Elementary School in methods block during the Spring 2002 semester at Appalachian State University.
Impact: This unit should be used by teachers desiring literature circle units aligned with the North Carolina Standard Course of Study for the Fifth Grade. The included books cater to students on the third and fifth grade levels.
By focusing on literature groups where each child has a "role" to perform, each group is exposed to many different goals and standards (1.03, 2.03, 2.09). Included in the group is a "Discussion Director" who focuses on asking different types of questions such as main idea thinking questions, cause and effect questions, possible end-of-grade test questions, setting, plot, or problem/solution questions (2.02, 2.04, 4.02). The "Passage Picker" focuses on finding different types of passages including figurative language passages, intriguing, or prediction passages, sequencing passages, author's craft passages, and emotion-producing passages (2.04). The "Word Wizard" finds tricky or unfamiliar vocabulary words and makes detailed word cards including dictionary definitions, context sentence and clues, and a picture (1.02, 1.03, 1.04). The "Character Sketcher" focuses on one character per section and does a detailed characterization of that character based on passages from the book (3.01, 3.02, 3.03). They also draw the character using the passages. A fifth job such as "Travel Tracer" or "Summarizer" focuses on evaluating the chapters and condensing them in an organized way.
Alignment: This literature circle lesson plan was created to be one of a set of literature circle plans up on the web from Appalachian State University to be used by teachers in the field and for our future use (Tech. Competency 10.3, 10.6). This web-based literature circle can be used by fifth grade teachers to teach their students about literature in a sensible, efficient, in-depth manner (Tech. Competency 11.1, 11.2, 11.3, 11.4). These literature circles communicate a lesson plan that develops student involvement, inquiry, and collaboration (Tech. Competency 12.4, 12.5). Different reading levels are included so that children under grade level, or for whom english isn't their primary language and are struggling can participate and still learn fifth grade requirements (Tech. Competency 13.2, 13.3,INTASC Standard 2).
The literature circle is a reading technique that gives students practice reading while they comprehend what they read through the different Language Arts components of reading that they are required to know in the North Carolina Standard Course of Study using literature reviewed by a prospective teacher (INTASC Standard 1). The literature circle breaks books up into twenty page sections and jobs for each member of the group showing attention to short-term and long-term planning goals for the classroom that is flexible enough to use in any classroom and is effective for all learning styles (INTASC Standard 7). Because of the different "jobs" involved for students to do, students have multiple opportunities to learn information in the context of several different point-of-views. Students are responsible for their own jobs and the teacher is an audience member and trainer, while the students are involved in a literature discussion led by a student (INTASC Standard 4). The "job" itself is the method for the teacher to assess the students' understanding of the material involved (INTASC Standard 8).
The group itself motivates the student to do their share of the work and contribute their own information from their job's point-of-view. The books relate material to subjects the students are interested in, and manages class time efficiently and in-depth (INTASC Standard 5).
I plan to use my own literature circle and those of my classmates, when
I teach, to enhance my own instruction (INTASC
Standard 9).