Literature Circles and WBT

My students and I are embarking on a new journey into Literature Circles. This is the first time this year that students will be working collaboratively through a student facilitated discussion. In preparation for the lesson I thought about how WBT could be incorporated into the lesson to ensure everything is clear and runs smoothly. I decided to developed gestures to go along with the five Literature Circle roles that are introduced at the beginning of the lesson. 

The follow is a list of the five roles:

The discussion leader is in charge of facilitating the discussion and creating higher order thinking questions.

The summarizer retells the important parts and turns a few chapters into a concise paragraph.

The wordsmith looks for several words in the text that are new and interesting. They also put the word and definition on the word wall.

The journalist sketches a picture of the scene with a description.

The line lighter copies down evidence of great writing or important quote within the text.

Below is a video of my class learning the roles with gestures for the first time. Students are using my favorite strategy, mirror, to enhance their understanding.

If you are interested in worksheets for each role just comment below and I’ll post them! K