Creating a Circle

For the purpose of making comparisons, we understand a traditional literature circle to be set up in advance by the teacher who has predetermined the reading material. Students are given an opportunity to rank their selections, then the teacher makes the final decision on groups. Each person in the group is responsible for reading part of the book each week and completing a worksheet tailored to his/her specific role in the group. Some examples of traditional roles include, discussion director, connector, passage picker, summarizer etc. Students rotate through the roles at each meeting.

Setting up a performance-based literature circle is not unlike creating traditional literature circles, with a couple of significant differences. In a traditional literature circle, we've found keeping the group size smaller allows for more in-depth conversation and opportunities to participate for each student. For Reader's Theatre performances, often more students are required as participants to make the final production work. For Monologue circles, the main difference is how the circle is created. Students make their own independent reading selections based on interest and ability, and then they are grouped based on their choices; there are no limits to who they can choose to read about except one...

Because students are allowed a great deal of latitude in selecting their 'person', we strongly encourage parental approval. Particularly in grade 9, when students are expanding their connection with the world around them, their choices start addressing more mature themes. All parties need to work together to define what is appropriate.