Literature Circle Directions
Book Options
African American Literature- Their Eyes Were Watching God, The Color Purple, Uncle Tom’s Cabin,
Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man
Bildungsroman (coming of age stories)- Catcher in the Rye, A Separate Piece, The Chosen, The Joy Luck
Club, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Romance- Jane Eyre, Mansfield Park, Emma, Persuasion, Little Women, Wuthering Heights
Dystopic- Brave New World, 1984, Handmaid’s Tale, Lord of the Flies, Slaughterhouse Five,
Chicano Literature- Bless Me, Ultima; The House on Mango Street
Plays- Oedipus Rex, Death of a Salesman, Crucible, Desire Under the Elms, The Glass Menagerie
Horror- Turning of the Screw,
Mythology- The Aeneid, Medea
War- Catch 22, A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls,
Others- “Civil Disobedience”, “Daisy Miller”, Ethan Frome, East of Eden, Gulliver’s Travels, Silas Marner
Roles-4 people per group. Jobs include: vocabulary king/queen, discussion director, travel tracer, and
literary luminary. Each person should take on one job.
Assignment- You will meet in class on pre-assigned days throughout the semester. You as a group will
set four reading goals. Each class discussion day, each person in your group is expected to have read to
the pre-assigned place. You will have the whole class period for each person to share their product with
the group.
Literary Luminary: Your job is to choose a paragraph or page from the book (1 section per assigned
reading section) to discuss with your group. Your purpose is to help other students by spotlighting
something interesting, powerful, funny, puzzling, or important from the text. Write a full paragraph
including your reasons for picking the paragraphs or sections you did and it will be turned in to the
teacher). Please record the page number and paragraph. When your group meets, you will be
responsible to ensure that each student has a copy of the paragraph that they can write on and
annotate. Part of your assignment on group discussion days will be to annotate the paragraph.
Vocabulary King/Queen: As you read sections of this book, write down any vocabulary words you would
like to understand better, seem puzzling or unfamiliar, or seem significant to the story- you must have at
least 10 vocabulary words per section. Make sure to note page numbers for each word. You are
expected to be an expert on these words when you meet as a group. Your group will define the ten
words, write a sentence correctly using each word, and draw a picture illustrating each word. You must
help them achieve success.
Travel Tracer: In a book where characters move around a lot and the scenes change frequently, it is
important for everyone in your group to know where things are happening and how the setting may
have changed. Even if the scenery doesn’t change much, the setting is still a very important part of the
story. Your job is to track where the action takes place. Describe each setting in detail. You can also
create a story map, timeline, or illustration book.
Discussion Director: Your job is to write a list of questions that your group might want to discuss about
this part of the book. You must write a total of 10 discussion questions. You must have a discussion
question based on each level of Bloom’s taxonomy- Knowledge (remembering- recall information from
the story), Comprehension (understanding-able to explain ideas), Application (applying-use information
in a new way), Analysis (analyzing-distinguish between different parts), Evaluation (evaluate the quality
of the work-be able to justify a decision), and Creating(create a new product or point of view). These
questions should be thought provoking and engaging. Your job during class discussion will be to make
notes about insight shared in response to these questions.
EVERYONE- Connections-Also as a group, you will be expected to create a list of 5 ways that the story
connects to the world around us. This could be something that connects to your own life, to what
happens at school or in the community, to similar events at other times and places, or to other people
or problems. Each group member should bring one connection with them to the group and you will
create a poster with your connections.
Present: At the end of the project, you will present to the class information about your book. Your job is
whet the appetite (don’t give too much away) of other students in the class to read your book. You must
speak for a total of 2 minutes and no more than 5 minutes. There must be a visual aspect to your
presentation. I also need to see proof that you have worked on this presentation in advance.