Below is an excerpt from the first chapter of Harvey Daniels's Literature Circles: Voice and Choice in Book Clubs

and Reading Groups (Stenhouse, 2002). CHAPTER ONE: Welcome to Literature Circles Back in 1993, when I joined with twenty great teachers to write a book about literature circles, we didnt quite know what we were getting into.

We were a loose confederation of colleagues working from Kindergarten through college, in city and suburban schools around Chicago. What brought us together was our excitement about the student book clubs meeting in our classrooms, which we called "literature circles." Using a variety of different structures and procedures that matched our grade levels, wed been dazzled by what the kids could do when given choices, time, responsibility, a little guidance and a workable structure. Our students were reading lots of good books, thinking deeply about them, writing notes and journal entries, and joining in lively, informed literature discussions. They shared responses with peers, listened respectfully to each other, sometimes disagreed vehemently, but dug back into the text to settle arguments or validate different interpretations. In short, our kids were acting like real readers, lifelong readers. Oh, sure, there were problems, too: kids who didnt do the reading, off-task discussions, and really noisy rooms. But mostly, it was working. And our group of colleagues was really excited. Literature circles were a pretty nifty little invention that we had created all by ourselves, right here in the rarefied climate of Chicago. Of course, we soon found out that were not alone at all. All across the country, we had plenty of unmet company, teachers and kids who were inventing and reinventing literature circles of their own. Today, things have really changed. The world has changed, schools have changed, and literature circles have changed. What used to be a quiet, homegrown activity in a few scattered classrooms has become a trend, a boom, almost a fad. Now, tens of thousands of teachers are doing something they call "literature circles." And many other teachers are using classroom activities that look very much the same, which they call "book clubs" or "reading groups." This means that now literally millions of students are involved in some kind of small, peer-led reading discussion group. Over this period of phenomenal growth, the basic definition of LCs has stayed the same, at least for us. Literature circles are small, peer-led discussion groups who have chosen to read the same story, poem, article, or book. While reading each group-assigned portion of the text (either in or outside of class), each member makes notes to help them take contribute to the upcoming discussion, and everyone comes to the group with ideas to share. Each group follows a reading and meeting schedule, holding periodic discussions on the way through the book. When they finish a book, the circle members may share highlights of their reading with the wider community; then they trade members with other finishing groups, select more reading, and move into a new cycle.

Procedures for getting our Book Clubs organized: Organize into groups of three or more. Take time to introduce yourselves if you dont already know each other. Take about 2 minutes to create and practice your Book Club handshake. You will have the opportunity to share this with the rest of us. Since the brain doesnt generally work well under stress and/or feeling threatened, you always have the right to pass. Your Book Club will need to decide 1) how you will each take responsibility for a Book Club role (roles are explained below) and 2) what your reading schedule will be. Make sure to consult our course calendar. Discussion Director Your job is to make a list of questions that your group might want to discuss about a part of the book that you just read. Dont worry about the small details. The best questions are usually the ones you had yourself as you read. Illustrator Your job is to recreate what you just read into some type of art. You can show a drawing, cartoon, diagram, story map, 3-D visual, etc. Literary Luminary Your job is to find a few special passages in the section that you read that you want to read aloud to your group. The passages may be interesting, funny, an example of good writing or even something that you want to discuss. Word Wizard Your job is to find 2 or 3 interesting words from the reading. The words can be challenging, unusual, descriptive, etc. Find out more about the word by looking it up in the dictionary are sharing the definition with your Book Club. Tag the word in your reading and help your BC find it so that you can read your words in context together. Summarizer Your job is to briefly tell what happened in the part that you just read. Retell the main events (or key points). The other members will be counting on you to keep the important parts straight. Connector Your job is to find connections in your reading. You can make any of these connections: Text-to-self, text-toworld, text-to-text, text-to-class

All Book Club members will need to tag your book as you are reading. You may tag it by using post-its or by writing in the margin of your book. Come prepared to share your tags at every Book Club meeting. (See Course Calendar) After you have read your book, you will work collaboratively to create a info-graphic showcasing the important ideas from you r book club discussions.

Your Book Club Schedule: