Role Description

Overview: A "Literature Circle" is a structure for talking about a book with your peers as you read it together. Students are in charge of the discussion and for setting reading assignments together (how many pages read before next discussion). There are between 4 -6 members in each literature circle, and each member rotates one of the following jobs throughout the project.

Discussion Director/Facilitator: This student is responsible for writing down 5 thought-provoking questions for the purpose of group discussion based on that day’s reading assignment. As the group Facilitator, it is also this student’s job to direct the group discussion, keep track of student work, and rate the group’s "Habits of Work" each day the group meets.

Literary Luminary/Alternate Facilitator: This student is responsible for choosing parts of the story that he/she wants to read out loud to the group. The idea is to help students remember some interesting, powerful, puzzling, or important sections of the text being read. The Literary Luminary must decide which passages or paragraphs are worth reading aloud, and justify the reason for selecting them. Additionally, if the Discussion Director is absent, this student will serve as the Facilitator.

Connector: This student is responsible for finding connections between the text his/her group is reading and the outside world. This means connecting the reading to the following: his/her own life, happenings at school or in the community, similar events at other times and places, other books or stories, other writings on the same topic, or other writings by the same author.

Character Captain: This student is responsible for revealing specific personality traits of the character(s) within the novel. This means he/she will find examples in the assigned reading of behaviors/actions that help group members to know the character(s).

Artful Adventurer: This student is responsible for sharing an artistic representation of the material read. Avenues for expression may include: artwork in any medium, music, poetry, collage, music, mobile or anything else which represents an aspect of the material read.

Vocabulary Enricher: This student is responsible for finding especially important vocabulary in the story. Vocabulary selected should focus on words that are unfamiliar, interesting, important, repetitive, funny, puzzling, descriptive, vivid or those used in an unusual way.