Lindsey Lash

Literature Circle Summary

I.

Quality of Responses

Throughout the duration of the literature circle, it was a huge

struggle to get students to even respond to the questions being asked.
When students did respond, rarely, if ever, students responded
accurately to the directions posted by the teachers. There were some
grammatical and spelling errors, but I expected this going into the
group with the lower performing students.
The posts were not very thoughtful, thorough, or insightful. The
only time that students would offer their opinions was if they were
asked to. It was almost as if we had to pull teeth for responses from
majority of the students. There were some personal connections to
their own lives; however, I can only recall this taking place a few times
with the questions that I had asked. I did not keep as close of an eye
on the other teachers posts.
There is really no comparison of posts because the students did
not respond enough. There was one student who stood out to me
because she always seemed to try her best. I feel that she did work
whenever she could and that she truly cared about responding to the
questions, and if nothing more, responding and interacting to the
teachers.
II.

Word Use

These students did not use a sophisticated vocabulary, which leads

me to believe that these students have lower lexicons. If this is the
case, then it can be assumed that the students who were reading
Frindle had a much lower lexile measurements than those who were
reading the other texts.
The students only defined four words from the entire text, which
were found in chapter one. All of the students essentially stopped
responding to Ms. Pences posts after this point. There was no

interaction going on between the students, which lead me to believe

that the students do not like to be pushed out of their comfort zones.
Even when Ms. Pence tried having the students find two gold nugget
words themselves, no one left a response.
It seems that one student is trying to again go above and beyond
while attempting to expand her vocabulary. Otherwise, the other three
students did not take much time to create their responses.
III.

Predictions

The students did progress with their predictions throughout the text,
with the exception of the final chapter. I was happy with the number of
responses; however, I would have preferred quality over quantity. The
students seemed to either guess without thinking, or knew the right
predictions to make because they had already read the text. In this
case, I am able to say that the students were at least using their
knowledge and interpreting the text correctly to go back and make
their predictions. This aspect would have been great if I was looking for
reading comprehension. I would not say this was justifying their
predictions with evidence from the text because very rarely did any of
the students pull prior information while making a prediction. The
majority of their predictions were accurate because they actually read
those sections of the book. Finally, their predictions varied between
one another because some students based their responses only on
their feelings rather than pulling textual information into their post.
IV.

Visualizations

I had attempted to have the student visualize their final predictions

as to what was going to happen throughout the remainder of the text,
but none of the students had responded. I am unsure of what their
visualization of predictions would have been; however, basing my
summary off of the images and drawings students had created I would
say that they had a decent idea about how to visualize scenes from the
text. It was evident that some students only found pictures throughout

the book and tried to recreate the image, but others tried their best to
create their own scene. Some were more accurate than others, but the
drawings that were more accurate were almost less insightful because
they were just recreated images, rather than their own interpretations.
I wish the students had created more individualized images this way
their creativity would have shined through rather than just recreations.
However, it was a learning experience on both ends of the classroom,
and with every attempt improvements are made.
Their images cannot compare in creativity to one another because
they were all individually done. They do compare because each
student chose to recreate an image with the last post that Ms. Bowers
asked of the students. I found this to be interesting since they were
given the opportunity to be creative or to simply recreate an image.
One question I continue to ask myself is how can we get students to
tap into their creativity?
V.

Personal Reflections

To say the very least, I am extremely glad that we were able to

experience an online literature circle. I feel that it has exposed me to
something that was not only out of my comfort zone, but expanded my
skills with interacting with students.
I have learned to stay patient, especially when dealing with
technology. Although technology is a blessing, it is not always
dependable. I am unsure of my personal feelings towards using
Edmodo for this type of experience again. I do feel that literature
circles are an extremely effective way for students to read and respond
to a text; however, I am unsure if it truly was effective online. I feel
that there needs to be stronger reinforcements within the classroom,
and that the students should have been meeting in person while
connecting with us as well. An awesome extension for this idea is to
coordinate the class time at SHU a reading class, and the students
could work virtually over devices together with the college students.

The technology could really aid this project in phenomenal ways;

however, I feel that because the iPads are so new to the students that
it was not as successful as it could have been. I feel that these are all
glitches that can be fixed if the project takes place again in the future.
This experience is most definitely a valuable tool in impacting me
as a teacher. I learned how to interact with students over the Internet.
This is an invaluable aspect for where teaching is going because most
likely, online literature circles will take place someday in my classroom.
If I would ever want to implement a literature circle online with a
collegiate class, I now know how to go about doing so, and I can take
my personal input along with my peers when preparing my future
students.
One of the best experiences from this entire project was actually
getting to see the students in action. Seeing the students in person
truly showed me how excited they were about learning, along with
interacting with college students. Although I found meeting the
students personally to be very rewarding, it also left me confused.
Seeing their excitement in person did not match up with the responses
that we were receiving over the Internet. After meeting the students, I
wondered even more about how to engage the students through online
communication. I want to foster their enthusiasm from meeting us in
person through Edmodo, or another app.
In conclusion, there were a lot of ups and down with this
experience. However, I feel that overall it was a positive learning
experience, and no matter what the outcome, we tried. Through trying
I believe that we learned a lot, and through the not so positive times,
we learned even more. I look forward to hearing about what is done
with online literature circles in the future.
Journal #1- March 8th, 2014

Today is the first day that I am going to be posting on the

Edmodo site. So far, it appears to be a relatively simple site to navigate
and everything should go smoothly. Ms. Staso and Ms. Bowers have
already made their introductory posts; however, no students have
responded yet. I am very anxious to see how this literature circle is
going to go, and even more anxious about seeing the responses of the
students. I know going into this specific group that the students are
going to be learning at a bit of a lower level than the other students, so
I cannot wait to see how this will affect their literature circle.
Journal #2- March 13th, 2014
It appears now that each of the students have made their
introductory posts; however, I am noticing a lot of grammatical errors,
along with the students are picking different places to comment
instead of creating a new post. This worries me because I am unsure if
they know how to navigate the site. I am excited to see the students
enthusiasm and I hope it stays this way throughout the duration of the
literature circle. One of the students, Aubri, responded directly to my
introductory post telling me about her, and she seemed to be very
expressive with her words; though, they were not necessarily
expressed in the most professional manner. She used multiple
exclamation points at a time, and typed in all caps in the beginning. I
am unsure of their teachers classroom setup before the beginning of
the literature circle. I feel that there was not a lot of prep work put into
using the site on both ends. This may be an issue throughout the
circle.
Journal #3- March 17th, 2014
Majority of the students have responded to my first question, in
fact three students did. According to Mrs. Smith, Nathan, Ryan, and
Aubri are supposed to be in our group; however, Aubri, Ryan, and Nikki
are responding to my question thus far. I am a bit confused by this.
Hopefully things are going to be straightened out soon.
Being the predictor for my groups, I had asked all students to
have Chapter 1 read by March 17th, and to make a prediction about the
very first picture in the book. I had stated that, This picture depicts
Nick at 2 months old. How do you think this picture pertains to the
story? What do you predict the book will be about? I had also asked
the students to respond using between five and six sentences. For the
most part, each student is abiding by what was asked of him or her.
Some students are not double-checking their spelling and grammar
before submitting their responses, and they are creating very basic
sentences.

It is also obvious that the students have already read part of the
story, and are responding with knowledge from reading the story. This
is a good thing that they are applying their knowledge to the question;
however, it is defeating the purpose of making predictions. The
students are using their comprehension skills, but I now have to figure
out the best way possible to keep the students predicting, while
students make their predictions before actually reading the text. This
way, students will actually be applying the skill of predicting.
I am anxious to see if there will be any more responses from the
same or different students, and if each student will build on their
knowledge that they have about the story thus far or not. This
experience thus far has already begun to have me think about different
avenues to get the students to use the skill that I am searching for. It is
challenging but is helping me discover in myself, ways to problemsolve an actual classroom issue.
Journal #4- March 20th, 2014
When logging into Edmodo today, I was very overwhelmed by
notifications. I can only imagine what the fifth graders are feeling like if
I am overwhelmed and I am a college student and soon to be teacher.
However, to keep on track I went off of Ms. Stasos lead to continue on
to chapters two and three. This week I decided to break apart the
questions into chunks so it is hopefully easier for students to read and
see what is being asked of them. I have asked the students three
different prediction questions for both chapters.
It appears that the students are responding to the other
teachers, so hopefully when I check back in a few days all of the
students will respond. I like the alerts that appear in bold. I feel as if
they are great reminders; however, I am not sure if sending multiple
alerts will be very effective with fifth graders. I was later to post this
week due to being in California, and I hope there is enough time for
students to respond to my question. If needed, I plan to give students
some extra time to respond.
This week working through Edmodo for the literature circle I have
grown more as a teacher to learn how to budget my time. When I am
ready to student teacher I will be going out into a classroom and am
with students all day long. Learning how to budget my time into a
semi-practicum type feel really helps. I am anxious to see the students
responses.
Journal #5- March 24th, 2014
This weeks post did not go as well as I had hoped originally. I
have only had one student respond to my prediction post; however,
the student who was responding had great answers, and it was evident

that she was putting forth her best effort. She had said that with the
way I posted one of my questions that she was confused, and for me
this was very helpful. It made me realize that I really need to simplify
what I am asking of students. I am wondering if this is also a reason
why there was only one student response this week, or if the students
simply did not feel like working or forgot to post.
I am also wondering how fluent these readers are, and whether
or not this text is at their own frustrational levels. I know that Frindle is
the lower of the book groups; however, I wonder if students are not
responding because they are being challenged too much.
Ms. Staso, Ms. Pence, and myself all posted alerts to hopefully
remind students to complete their work for chapters two and three so
that we could move onto the next chapters. We were discussing in
class between the teachers in my group whether or not we should
continue with two chapters at a time, and I felt that it was too much for
the students and they were beginning to shut down.
We discussed in class how the students wanted to have dates
that responses were due; however, this was not supposed to feel like
an assignment. This is something that I am finding to be very
challenging. I have decided to create a Chapter 4 Prediction
assignment using the assignment aspect on Edmodo. This gives
students an opportunity to submit their work so other students cannot
see it if they are not comfortable with that, or they can simply post
their response as a comment below. Either way allows for the teacher
to give feedback.
I was also able to set a date that the assignment is due. I am
hopeful that by going back to one chapter at a time and giving the
students a deadline from the beginning that it will help them to stay on
task.
I have really been challenged this week to problem solve on the
spot and to figure out a method that is going to reach all students. I
worked on differentiating instruction for the students and have become
open to alternative methods. In this way I have been impacted as a
future teacher.
Journal #6- March 26th, 2014
The post that I had made on the 24th was as follows:
Aubri, Nikki, Ryan, and Robbie,
This week we are going to be working on Chapter 4. On page 18 in
your book, there is a picture titled, Homework First.
How do you think Nick is feeling in this picture?

Have you ever felt this way?

The title of this chapter is, Word Detective, what do you predict this
chapter will be about? Why? What previous knowledge are you using to
support your thoughts?
This assignment is due by the end of the day, March 26th.

Three out of four students have responded to this post, and I am

actually quite pleased with this result. I feel that it is more important
that the students are responding and staying involved at this point.
One of the students responses was:

I think Nick feels like really I half to do all this work. I have felt this way when
we went into 5th grade and had more work than in 4th. I think he will be annoyed
because he must do a project on a sunny day.

Clearly he had not met all of the requirements that I had asked of him,
but he did reply, and the week prior he did not. I am not quite sure
where his grammar should be as a fifth grader, but there are some
errors in his response. I was hesitant to push him further for fear of him
not responding to the next weeks post, so I had just responded with
encouraging words.
The past couple weeks have been very frustrating, and
challenging to get the students to respond. The students within our
literature circle are not responding using sophisticated vocabulary, and
are making okay predictions, but they are not taking details from the
story. They are tying in their personal thoughts, which I believe is a
start.
I have also posted some background information for the students
to look into if they want. I have made sure that I let the students know
that it was optional, and just for their benefit. I am hoping that some of
the students research the book further.
Journal #7- April 3rd, 2014
This weeks prediction post was posted later; therefore, I had the
students post two thoughts they had before reading chapter five, and
to think ahead about chapter six. I kept my post this week relatively
simple to allow students time to respond to all of the other teachers
posts. I also encouraged students to re-read their text if they had
forgotten to post to older areas from the literature circle.

Before sending off the students this week I decided to include:

**If you have any questions or are confused on anything we are asking of you,
PLEASE feel free to post and ask away. We are here to help you, and we want you to
really engage with this book.

Hopefully this will also encourage the students to engage more in

conversations, rather than just post their own thoughts, and not
respond to anything else. I think the students would enjoy posting
more if they could interact and respond with their classmates more.
Something to think about in the future would be to possibly Facetime
the students in our groups at some point throughout the semester so
they could ask questions in a more personable manner.
Journal #8- April 7th, 2014
When I logged into Edmodo today I discovered that one of the
students in my literature circle used the information that I had posted
about the author to her advantage. She commented about how many
books that were sold. This gave me the opportunity to engage with her
in a not-so-formal conversation that I wish would have happened with
each of the students earlier on in the group.
So far, only one student has responded to my post from last
week, and after conversing with other members in my group we have
decided to make this week a catch up week. Ms. Staso was creating
the post because she was the director of the group. She informed all
students that they were to use this week to their advantage instead of
giving them more work to complete.
I am looking forward to next week to see if this catch up week
helps the students or if they are simply being lazy with their responses.
Journal #9- April 14th, 2014
I was pleasantly surprised to see that more students had
responded and used the catch up week the their advantage. Two more
students posted in response to my last question; however, again the
students were lax with their grammar and spelling. There is something
inside of me that keeps telling me that these students can be doing so
much more, but it is very difficult to keep the students on task when
we are not in the classroom with each of them personally.
The past few weeks have been very frustrating because a lot of
feel that there is nothing more than we can do to have the students
respond. I would not go as far to say that this experience so far has not
been successful, I just feel that we have not gotten everything out of it
that could have been experienced.
Because we are winding down with our posts, I posted my very
last post today, asking students to use their predictions that they had
already made and drawing what they believe the outcome of the story

was going to be. I hope that students will take this opportunity to not
be required to write something to express themselves through a
drawing.
Final Journal #10- April 20th, 2014
Students have not responded to anything for a few days, so I feel
it is safe to say that there will not be any more responses. I am
saddened to say that there was not one response to my final
questions; however, it has been a learning experience. I am glad that I
was able to interact with actual students in this type of educational
online experience.