Literature Circles

Literature Circles. (2016). [Online Image]. Retrieved
October 29, 2016 from http://bit.ly/2f50dzm

Literature Circles

Motivating students to love reading can be a challenge, especially for students who struggle with reading.  This is why there is an urge for teachers to implement new strategies that engage students in the world of reading and get them to realize reading is fun!  One way to do this is through literature circles in the classroom.

What Are Literature Circles?

Literature circles are essentially based around the idea of book clubs, wherein students form groups and will all discuss a particular piece of text.  The group will have a discussion facilitator that will prompt students with questions to engage critical thinking.  Other students will then play different roles in the discussion such as, someone who finds connections, someone who finds interesting vocabulary and someone who finds interesting passages.  Literature circles are such a great strategy for the classroom since they combine collaborative thinking with student based inquiry.  By taking the focus off the teacher, students have to take control of their own learning, which arises questions and thinking they may not have had in a teacher led discussion.  This is because often when teachers lead discussion, students sit there, listen, retain information and maybe place it into their memory bank, but what fails to initiate is critical thinking.  Students are then led to take the text from a surface level to a more in depth level and deepen their understanding.

Literature Circle jobs. (2016). [Online Image]. Retrieved October 29, 2016 from http://bit.ly/2f4iCfG

Why use Literature Circles?

As literature circles have become quite prominent in the classroom, so has discussion based around the concept.  Various articles, blogs and videos have surfaced for teachers to effectively implement literature circles, one in particular was posted by Education World at http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr259.shtml.  In this blog, two experts delve into what literature circles and what makes them so important.  The blog discusses how literature circles build excitement for books and reading and provides various resources and insight for teachers who want to implement literature circles.  One of the most important reasons to use literature circles however is for this reason that they build excitement for the love of reading again! 

Introducing Literature Circles Anchor Chart.

[Online Image]. Retrieved October 29, 2016

from http://bit.ly/2fmJ3Rs

In another blog The Power of Literature Circles in the Classroom, the author also discusses why we should use literature circles.  In her discussion she illustrates how her son never cared for reading, but once became apart of a literature circle, he loved it!  In his first literature circle he reads the infamous Green Eggs and Ham, and as the connector, goes to class ready to discuss the ethics of eating animals.  This perfectly illustrates how literature circles can take reading to the next level of learning by prompting debates surrounding real life situations.

Literature circles are great for the differentiated classroom because groups do not have to be based around reading level.  This is a debatable concept, as some teachers prefer groups to be based off of similar reading levels, however, on the flip side, some teachers find that placing students in a group with varying reading levels can increase the comprehension process even if they are having difficulties with certain words.  This is based on the collaboration process, as students collaborate, students who may have struggled gain powerful insights they may not have had prior.  This further motivates students to work on their reading strategies to improve their reading level.  

Teachers can also play a role and place questions they want students to focus on while reading.  Students will then go home, or read at school independently, but at their own pace.  This is why students are various reading levels can be placed together, because as one student may take several hours to finish a chapter, another may have only taken 40 minutes, but students will nonetheless, come into class ready for discussion.  This allows students to read at a pace that best fits their learning style.  

Relating to the Curriculum 

The Ontario Language Curriculum. (2016). [Online Image]. Retrieved October 29, 2016 from http://bit.ly/2fmEXZv

Literature circles also apply to multiple areas of the language and literacy curriculum.  Through the form of literature circles, students can collaborate and practice their oral communication skills.  Through this students deepen their understanding by hearing different perspectives from their peers.  These different perspectives can also promote diverse points of view and encourage cultural inclusiveness.  Literature circles also give the flexibility to explore a variety of texts.  With this students can explore plays, short stories, novels, newspapers etc.  This is a perfect opportunity to implement current events into a lesson instead of having students do individual presentations.  Lastly, the collaboration aspect of literature circles motivates students to want to read more!  Students gain a desire for further reading after sharing their opinions and thoughts.

  

Media Studies

Media Literacy

To be literate in the 21st century, is to encompass media literacy

Media Literacy. [Online Image]. (2012). Retrieved
October 15, 2016 from 

Teaching in the 21st century is vastly different than previous generations because we are now living in the digital age.  Technology is ubiquitous, you can't escape it regardless of where you go and this applies to the classroom.  Because of students continuous engagement with technology in their day to day lives, educators have found ways to implement it into curricula to help children understand media.

Why Teach Media Literacy?

Instead of resisting the growth of media, educators now help students to understand, analyze, evaluate and create media through the media literacy section of the curriculum.  Just as students are expected to asses and critically analyze various forms of texts, students are expect to reflect and critically evaluate different media forms, formulating meaning and discovering various ways to utilize media, making students competent media users.  But what makes a competent media user?  That's where digital citizenship comes into play.  Teachers look to instill proper digital citizenship within their classrooms by showing students what is appropriate and responsible usage when dealing with technology.  Just as society has its rules and norms, so does the web and these rules need to be instilled in students to create a safe and harmonious environment.

What is Digital Citizenship?

Digital Citizenship [Online Image]. (2016). Retrieved
October 15, 2016 from http://bit.ly/2duStao

Digital citizenship encompasses a variety of norms that should be followed including cyber bullying, knowing your digital footprint, recognizing harmful sites, digital etiquette (often refered to as netiquette), digital law etc.  The list is expansive, but most importantly it teaches children how to be safe on the internet.  Students need to become familiar with the openness and availability of the internet, which does not exclude personal information.  Therefore, teaching students about privacy and their digital footprint becomes imperative among the youth.  Further, teaching students how and when to recognize bias', racial comments, and cyber bullying.  Teachers often use the acronym THINK before you speak and have now expanded it to express the digital world and urges to students think before you share- be kind, don't share passwords and avoid scams.

The following link on Edutopia http://www.edutopia.org/article/digital-citizenship-resources provides an abundance of resources to assist teachers in media studies instruction.  One resource I found of particular interest is titled Are we Addicted to Technology?

Think Before You Post. [Online Image]. (2016)
Retrieved October 15, 2016 from http://bit.ly/2dZTN63

This resource highlights how saturated the world actually is with media and technology, stating "According to Pew Research Internet Project, over 90 percent of American adults own a cellphone, and 73 percent of American adults online use a social networking site of some kind." Integrating technology into the classroom is a must, but I also find it important to teach this side of technology to our students. Yes, it is useful and Yes, we need to gain media literacy in order to communicate in our current society, but knowing the line of what is too much technology is also imperative. The article titled "Are we Addicted to Technology?" also formulates a list of short videos to show how addiction of media and technology are encapsulating the world. All giving great insights into the dangers of too much technological use and posing critical thinking questions for students to ponder over.

Balancing Technology    

Knowing how to balance technology in the classroom is also imperative for teachers. Gaining insight on how to balance technology in the classroom can be found in another great article on Education World, Library tech educator provides tips conquering tech phobia. In this article, Owen highlights how to balance technological usage in the classroom with traditional teaching routines.  This balance is also important to maintain a blended classroom environment.  While research has shown great strides for technological efficiency, face to face interaction and collaboration is still futile for a great education.

In a blended classroom, students are given the lesson or work online, this way students can work through it at their own pace.  Then in the classroom is when collaboration and activities on the lesson take place.  With the blended classroom the balance between technology and face to face interaction is key to its success.  It reminds us that media studies and integration of technology in the classroom is not about the technology itself, but rather how we utilize it to maximize student success.

Implementing technology in the classroom can be difficult, but effective nonetheless.  Students are highly responsive to forms of media because there worlds are highly saturated with different media forms.  If the answer to student engagement is technology and media than it is our duty as educators to find a way to effectively integrate these aspects into our teaching.

The question of should we integrate technology is gone, and we are now asking ourselves how do we effectively implement technology.  We all must take the stride toward this new learning order in order to provide our best form of education.

Communication Studies [Online Image]. (2015).  Retrieved October 16, 2016 from