Justice Literature Circles

Literature Circles engage students in elements of literature (plot sequence, character, setting, conflict, theme, etc.). The preparation for and participating in the discussions support students in making choices about what about the elements matter and how to select text evidence that illuminates the author’s craft and purpose. During discussions, students re-read, reflect, retell, and relate to what they read. The group work deepens understanding because readers can check and adjust their meaning-making through dialoguing with peers. Further, the role of personal response on interpretation becomes visible with other readers showing literature as dynamic rather than a static text to be decoded.

The roles offered at the end of this section are a starting point for equitable discussions as each student has a specific contribution to make (e.g., as sequencer or discussion director) with dedicated time to facilitate a discussion around a literary element around what was interesting to them. The roles can be modified and abandoned as students practice these more structured literary discussions or opt for more casual book group routines.

To Prepare

This lesson focuses on fiction because the various literature circle jobs work best with a narrative arc or plot. Make multiple copies of five to seven texts. Class sizes range from 5 to 40 across the country for various reasons. We have found groups of 4 seem to work best, so you will need as many different stories as groups. Of course, we value student choice, so you may invite students to select a story from the anthology they’d like to read and discuss together.

There is a digital version online, but you can also scan pages of the book and share it with students via the learning management system (Canvas, Google Classroom). If you have printers in your school, you can make a copy for each student to tape into their notebook.

For the literature circle jobs, there are six: sequencer, read aloud master, word watcher, discussion director, illustrator, and advice columnist. You can make copies of the instructions (see the end of this section) or post them on your learning management system (LMS). The descriptions include fairly detailed instructions and sentence stems. Please modify these for your students or search the web for other variations.

If you have facilitated this lesson in the past, post examples of the completed jobs (with different stories) on the classroom wall so that students can see mentor texts or examples.

Launch the Lesson

Start with a write-in. Project three options on the white-board or overhead project for students to select from (or make these available on your learning management system). A note about these write-ins, students should feel free to reject the prompts or develop their own during the writing time. For this prompt focused on place and where we are from, here are a few suggestions:

Informational: Just. Justice. What do these words mean? Create dictionary entries for these two words with the part of speech, sample sentences, synonyms, and antonyms.

Argument: X situation in my life is unjust. (Name a situation). First, define unjust, then explain the situation. Then, consider perspectives: On one hand, some would say X is unjust because… On the other hand, some would say X is unjust because…. However, if I had to choose, I’d say…

Narrative: Tell the story of a time when you felt or witnessed something unjust happening. Take us into the scene with dialogue or use sensory language to describe the setting (smell, taste, touch, colors, textures, temperature, etc). Get right into the unjust moment because this is a quick write.

Reading from Just YA

There are several ways you can set up the reading groups.

Students can preview the stories and then rank which ones they want to read. You can group by interests. Then, students can negotiate which roles they want to do. There are six options, so not all the roles will be used each time

Students can make their own groups and then negotiate among members which text they are going to read along with which role they will step into. It is important for students to know their role before they read so that they are reading with a particular lens (character, setting, language, conflict).

You can make the groups and assign texts based on class dynamics or what you know about your students. If you’ve made most of the decisions, it might be nice to let students decide or negotiate which literary role they will take up.

Note: Because the stories are short, you can do all of the above. Students can switch groups and stories over the course of several days or weeks. You may even make a certain day of the week Literature Circle Day.

Distribute the literature circle role instructions. Students benefit from knowing their role before they start reading so that they know what to attend to or have a reading purpose. Distribute the texts in print. A hardcopy is helpful for students to annotate (e.g., underline or circle parts they want to focus on for their role). Also, when it comes time for discussion, having the roles and texts in hard copy keep students focused on the discussion together and off technology.

Give students a class period to read independently and work on their role. Your role during this is to confer with each reader and support their process. As you confer, ask questions about “just” and “justice” and “unjust” so that you can support students in uncovering common themes across the texts. Ask follow-up questions as you meet with students such as “what makes you say so” to encourage this kind of discussion when they meet with their groups. We want students to cite text evidence and ask follow-up questions for rich discussion.

Get Moving: Discussion Time

The next day, unless you have block scheduling, you will want to set up a protocol for discussion. I like to divide the class time by the number of group members so that each member has a dedicated time to facilitate. For example if you have a 50-minute class period and four group members, the protocol may look like this:

5 minutes of setting up the room or gathering in groups spread out across the room or in the school library

10 minutes per group member

5 minutes for reflection or assessment

Your role is to set a timer on the board to help students with pacing and to walk around and support the discussion. You may want to offer students a handout (or co-create a document) about group norms with sentences stems:

I’ll get things started with the first question. Everyone turn to page (#) as I read.

Thank you (name), for your question. Here’s what I think.

I hear so and so saying (this), and I’d like to suggest (this).

Does anyone else want add on to that?

(name), will you ask the next question, please.

On page ___, the character says ____, so this shows ______.

I didn’t notice that when I read first read it, but thanks (name).

What makes you say so?

Closure

Return to the write-ins from the day before. And ask students to talk about the role of justice in their readings and conversations. Encourage the groups to reflect on their discussion skills: What went well? What could be improved? What kinds of questions or roles were most helpful in deepening an understanding of justice? Did the roles create greater equity in the conversation so that no one had to carry the load? Or did the roles feel restrictive? What would you like to change for next time?

As the teacher, you might share some of your observations. Provide feedback on their roles and contributions. Highlight strengths and areas for improvement. In subsequent sessions, rotate the roles within each group so that all students experience different responsibilities. Repeat the literature circle process, adjusting texts and groups as necessary based on student progress and interest.

Literature Circle Roles and Descriptions

sequencer, read aloud master, word watcher, discussion director, illustrator, and advice columnist.

Sequencer

Write eight sentences that include the important events that occurred during the reading of just the chunk that was assigned. Each sentence should be a different event. For each event, be sure you have included the answers to the following questions: Who? Did What? When? and Where? Cut out the sentences so that each one is on a separate slip of paper.

When your group meets, have them put the events in order. Staple the slips of paper in this order. Decide together which sentence tells the most important thing that happened in your reading, and place a star next to it and discuss why. Turn this in!

Read-aloud Master

Select three passages from the text from different parts of the text that are important or interesting throughout the chunk. Mark these passages with a sticky note and write the page/paragraph on a separate sheet of paper. After you choose your passages, you must explain the author’s purpose for each passage using the format below.. In other words, what message was the author trying to get across or why was that part included?

When your group meets, you may read the passages aloud to the group, or ask another person to read the selection. After your group reads each one, discuss why the author included that part in the story. Allow your group members to share their thoughts first. Then share what you wrote in the sheet/notebook entry you wrote in the format below.

You will turn in a typed paper with the page numbers, a brief paraphrase of the paragraphs, explanation of the author’s purpose for each passage, and notes from the discussion. It should look like this:

Passage 1:

Page number:

What’s basically happening in this passage?

Why is this worth bringing to the circle for discussion?

Notes from the group discussion:

Passage 2:

Page number:

What’s basically happening in this passage?

Why is this worth bringing to the circle for discussion?

Notes from the group discussion:

Passage 3:

Page number:

What’s basically happening in this passage?

Why is this worth bringing to the circle for discussion?

Notes from the group discussion:

Word Watcher

Your job is to find and define vocabulary words from the day’s reading in DIFFERENT SECTIONS of the text. As you read, choose words that you think are interesting, confusing, or new to you. Or choose the most important word in a few chapters through the text. Write each word, the page number where the word is found, the sentence in which the word is used, and the dictionary definition of the word on a separate sheet of paper (typed). Be ready to tell your group why you chose these words.

This is how your paper should look:

Word ______________Page # ____________

Sentence from reading

Dictionary definition:

Connotation as used in the sentence:

Word ______________Page # ____________

Sentence from reading

Dictionary definition:

Connotation as used in the sentence:

Word ______________Page # ____________

Sentence from reading

Dictionary definition:

Connotation as used in the sentence:

Word ______________Page # ____________

Sentence from reading

Dictionary definition:

Connotation as used in the sentence:

Word ______________Page # ____________

Sentence from reading

Dictionary definition:

Connotation as used in the sentence:

Discussion Director

Create 4 thoughtful questions for your group to answer orally. You must create two discussion questions from each of the four categories: literal, inferential, interpretive and your own thoughts. Print these on paper with space to take notes on the group’s responses and ideas on the day of the literature circle.

Literal Questions (Right There Questions – the answer is right there in the story. You can point to the answer. The words used to make up the question are often the same words that are in the answer):

On page ___, what happens is _______Define the meaning of

On page ___, what happens is _______Where was Name as many

On page ___, what happens is _______Describe in your own words

On page ___, what happens is _______What happened when

On page ___, what happens is _______What are the characters doing to solve the problem of

Which character

On page ___, what happens is _______

OR create your own literal questions.

Inferential Questions (Think and Search Questions – the answer is in the text, but it needs to be put together with different pieces of information from the book. You have to think and search for the answer):

How would you compare

Choose the best

How could the character

What is the difference between

OR create your own inferential questions.

Interpretive Questions (the Author and Me Questions – you need to think about what you know and what the author has said in the text. The answer will be from both the author and you as you infer meaning. The answer won’t be found on the printed page, but the information to answer the question is there):

On page ___, what happens is _______Predict what would happen if ______________________

On page ___, what’s going on is ______________Why did the author include _______________

On page ____, what is confusing is that ______________Can you prove that _____________

On page _____, what happens is _________What was the author’s purpose when ___________

On page______, what is going on is ___________Why did the character _________________

OR create your own interpretive questions.

My Own Thoughts. The answer is not in the story. The question is asking for your own thoughts about something in the story. It can be creative or open-ended and there is no right or wrong answer, but the answer should be supported by the text and your personal experiences and beliefs.

On page ___, what happens is _______Assess how you would feel if _______________

On page ___, what happens is _______How would you improve ___________________

On page ___, what happens is _______How did you feel when ____________________

On page ___, what happens is _______Why do you think _________________________

On page ___, what happens is _______Was it fair when _________________________

OR create your own “my thoughts” questions.

Illustrator

On a sheet of paper, draw a picture of something that is connected specifically to your book. It can be displayed as a cartoon, chart, diagram, or a sketch. Some examples are a character, the setting, a problem, an exciting part, a surprise or a prediction. Document the page number and passage that inspired you.

When your group meets, do not tell what the drawing is. Let them guess and talk about it first and observe them. Then you can tell about it. Have your group title the picture. With your group, write a brief description telling the significance of the picture on the reverse side of the illustration. Your description should explain something that can’t be seen by looking at the picture. Do not just describe the picture. Turn this in!

Advice Columnist

What is the conflict in the story? Choose a character from your story who is affected by the problem or conflict. Pretend you are that character and write a letter to “Dear Hank and John” explaining your problem. John and Hank Green (authors and YouTubers) offer both humorous and heartfelt advice about life’s big and small questions on their podcast. .Be sure to give accurate background knowledge of the situation for the brothers and a complete description of the conflict – try to sound like the character paying attention to any common phrases and tone. Don’t forget to sign your letter as the character! (Research “friendly letters” and who Hank and John are – or sub them out for another advice podcaster or YouTuber.)

When your group meets, share the letter by reading it aloud. On the back of the letter (or another place), your group should write a “Dear Hank and John” letter back to your character sounding like an adviser or counselor. Include ideas on how the character can solve the conflict. Turn this in!