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Nitty Gritty: Lit Circles
I love Wikipedia’s definition of literature circles: A literature circle is a students’ equivalent of an adult book club, but with greater structure, expectation and rigor. The aim is to encourage thoughtful discussion and a love of reading in young people. The true intent of literature circles is “to allow students to practice and develop the skills and strategies of good readers” (DaLie, 2001). Unfortunately, over my last ten years as an educator, I have found that lit circles have less and less to do with students discussing books and more to do with filling in packets. Where did all the discussion go? I did not fall in love with…
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If Not You, Then Who?
Identifying problems is important. It is certainly the first step toward a solution. However, as important as the first step is, it is worthless if it never goes any further. From my observation, there seem to be three main barriers to educators taking action: assumptions, roles, and time. These barriers affect our reactions to small issues, as well as, large problems. Unaddressed, these concerns become gigantic elephants within our organization, and as you can imagine, we get little done when we spend our days bumping into elephants. I do not present this blog post as an innovative solution to all of our education woes, rather it serves as a reminder.…
