Student-led book clubs have become a key ingredient in well-balanced reading programs, and teachers credit Harvey Daniels for showing the way with his 1994 best-seller, Literature Circles: Voice and Choice in the Student-Centered Classroom. Now Daniels returns with a thoroughly revised and expanded guide to forming, managing and assessing these peer-led book discussion groups. Drawing on ten years of classroom experiments and innovative models from teachers, the second edition offers abundant new strategies, structures, tools and stories that show how to launch and guide literature circles effectively. Everything from getting started to advanced variations are explored, including alternatives to Daniels’s popular role sheets and flexible new guidelines for their use.
The second edition features:
- four different models for preparing student for literature circles, using response logs, Post-it notes and newly designed role sheets
- new structures for primary, intermediate, middle years and secondary school levels
- alternative scheduling patterns for group meetings and reading time
- new mini-lessons for training, problem solving and book sharing
- new tools and materials for assessing and grading literature circles
- ideas for using literature circles with nonfiction texts across the curriculum
- an inventory of common management problems and solutions
- research on literature circles, including correlation with increased achievement on standardised tests
- an explanation of how literature circles match with national standards for literacy education.
Along with the voices of 20 practising teachers, Daniels offers a wealth of practical and concrete suggestions for every aspect of book club management, proven solutions for predictable problems and plenty of adaptable classroom materials for both teacher and student use.
