Literature Circle Lesson Activities

[Jayel]

The Ancient Mirrors Series by Jayel Gibson
Recommended Literature Circle Activities
1. Daily Journals: Have each literature circle member keep entries containing his/her thoughts on each day’s reading.

2. Mandalas: After students read a story, chapter, poem, or novel, ask them to draw a picture that represents the images and feelings and characters of what they just read on a circular piece of paper. Do this before discussion. Often times, this activity will help students to crystallize their thoughts on a piece. After drawing, ask them to write just one sentence explaining the drawing. After small group sharing of the drawings, ask them to write 7 sentences explaining the story and its significance. Fran Claggett's book Drawing Your Own Conclusions, explains this strategy in great detail. This is a first step of that strategy

3. Main Idea or Theme Posters: Ask students to choose the main ideas and events of the novel they are reading. Use this activity is the middle of a long novel or about 3/4 of the way through a novel when you want to make sure all the students are "caught up" in their understanding of the novel. On the high school level ask for 20-25 of the most important events that have happened so far. What constitutes "important"? Each student must decide.
Ask the students to choose 2-3 images of symbols that represent the book and to make stencils of these images. For example, a transporting mirror for Dragon Queen and a Wreken Wyrm shard for The Wrekening or the amulet of the joined houses for Quondam.

Using the stencils, the students then draw 20-25 shapes on construction paper, cut them out, and list the important novel events on the shapes. The shapes are then attached to the poster (in order of occurence). Reading group members individually write an explanation of the poster its events. The posters are presented to the class and then hung on the walls.

4. Pair/Share Journals: To keep variety in the classroom, ask students in one literature circle to share their journals with another literature circle in the class. This allows the different groups to compare and comment on each other's findings and discussions.

5. Occasional Thought Letters: This writing is longer than a journal entry (which often take about 15 minutes to write) yet shorter and simpler than a formal essay. It takes about an hour to write and could be 1 page typed single-spaced. The student is able to write about an entire week's work in the literature circle or class and reflect on the "whole" of the week. I ask students to explain the most significant, problematic, exhilarating points we discussed or strategies we tried.

6. Dialectical Journal: Students write one or two significant quotes on the left hand side of their journal page. On the right hand side, the students then remark or comment or explain or question the quotes. This allows the students to grapple with the meaning of the passages.

7. Found Poetry: Ask the students to find a passage in the novel and to compose a "found poem" using the passage's exact words. Offer a group of passages for the students to choose from.

8. Time Line: Ask students to tape 2 or 3 pieces of notebook paper together and to draw a line across the taped pages in readiness for a time line. Then ask students to write about positive characters and events on the TOP of the time line and about negative characters or events BELOW the time line. After this is completed, ask the students to circle the one most positive event and the one most negative event that has occurred in the story and to write about them. Share within the group and add the writing to the journals.

9. Homemade Cliff Notes: Students who know each other well and have experience with literature circle enjoy this activity. Each literature circle group is asked to write a self-styled "Cliffs Notes" for the novel.

10. Journals with Secondary Character Perspective: Ask literature circles to write a journal entry from a secondary character's perspective 2 or 3 times during the course of their reading and then to share their entries with group members.

11. Journal Headlines: Write a headline for a particular section of the book. Example-- "Man Becomes Dragon!"

12. Letter-Writing between Two Characters: Students can write imaginary letters between two characters. This works well if different literature circles are working on the same novel. Each group writes a letter for a particular character and sends it to the "character" in another literature circle.

13. Telegrams: Students can write telegrams of urgency from one character to another. Of course, cost must be taken into consideration. Every word or letter costs so much money. Class can decide before hand how much money each character has to spend on a telegram. Groups then draw character names out of a hat and must compose a message within that character's telegram "budget."

14. Editorials: Students can write an editorial on an issue that a book introduces or write an editorial from the perspective of a character keeping the novel's setting and the character's knowledge in mind.

15. Life-Lines Project: Students collect quotations from each book/poem/play/short story they read all year long in their journals. At the end of the semester and at the year, they look over the list of quotes and decide why this group of quotations is significant. (formal essay assignment).

16. Important Character Quotes: Students collect important character quotes as they read through a novel. Afterwards, they examine the list and write about what these quotes together reveal about the character.

17. Alphabet Scheme: Divide up the letters of the alphabet between your group members. For each of the letters, choose something from the book that starts with that letter. This can be a person, place, or thing. Then, write a brief explanation as to what the significance of this person, place, or thing was to the story. Put only one letter per page, but make them two-sided pages so it will read like a book. Add drawings/artwork on each page, or find passages from the book to quote and attach. Type these. Make a cover for the book and bind it together.
• A is for...............
• B is for...............

18. Creating a Childhood for a Character: Students are asked to create a believable childhood for a particular character in a novel. For example, students might devise a childhood for the cruel Queen Karid from Quondam or a childhood for Lord Ilerion of Damselflies.

19. Poetry Collection: Create a collection of poems relating to characters and incidents in the book. Each poem must be accompanied by an explanation of its applicability to the novel. Everyone in the group must write or collect two poems. Together, create a cover and back for the collection and bind the poems within it. Be creative in your cover design and material you use to make it out of. Possible poetic forms for you to choose are: "I Am Poem" (as one of the characters, a ”found poem", an acrostic poem based on the title of the book, and miscellaneous rhyming and free verse poems.

20. CD Cover: Using an actual CD clear plastic cover, please design a cover of a CD for your novel. On the inside of the CD case, write a list of songs which will "tell the story" of your novel. This song listing should fit inside the plastic case. Please add another sheet (or sheets) which explain why these particular songs reflect the themes, settings, events, and characters of the novel. You may also add the lyrics to each song.

21. Obituary for a Character: Students can write an obituary for a character that dies in the novel or a character that has died before the novel "began."

22. Letters to the author: Ancient Mirrors Tales, P. O. Box 48, Port Orford, OR 97465

23. To request a classroom visit in an Oregon, Washington or California school: Shelby Sledge, Publicist: [e-mail]