Literacy

Lit Circles

Lit Circles are group discussions about a book. They are like book clubs, but without the coffee 😉 During Lit Circles, each group will go around the circle asking and answering their skinny and fat, juicy questions (see below for details). Each student will complete a page in their Lit Circle duotang each week, including a Connection, 4 Questions, and 3 Vocabulary words.

This work is meant to challenge students to think about what they are reading, and to build knowledge as a group. It is not meant to burden anyone or cause stress. If you see that your child is stressed about this, please contact me.

Our Lit Circle Groups:

  • Lions (all grade 5s) are reading Fatty Legs (Christy Jordan-Fenton and Margaret Pokiak-Fenton)
  • Tigers are reading A Long Walk to Water (Linda Sue Park)
  • Bears are reading Refugee (Alan Gratz)
  • Oh Mys are also reading Refugee (Alan Gratz)

These books are based on what we are learning in Social Studies.

Lit Circle Work

See ‘Lit Circle duotang’ which lives in your child’s backpack as they are to bring it back and forth from home and to school, and back each day.

  • Connection: Each week your child will write a text-to-self, text-to-text, or text-to-world connection about the book. This is a paragraph about one thing that stood out to them in the book, that reminded them of something else. This connection should be well explained (including both what happened in the book and what this connects to) and important. How does this connection help you understand the story?
  • Questions: Skinny and Fat, Juicy
    • 2 skinny questions- these help test your groupmates on whether they read the book closely or not. A good skinny question is simple and easy to answer if you read the book.
    • 2 fat, juicy questions- these help spark discussion during Lit Circles. A good fat, juicy question usually begins with “why,” does not have a simple answer, and can be seen from many perspectives.
  • Vocabulary: 3 unknown (or not well known) words that you come across in the book
    • Write down the word
    • Write down the page number where you found the word
    • Write down the definition of the word
    • Now use the word in a sentence!