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Literature Circles and Reading Comprehension
CI 5040
May 1, 2010
Chad Hollister
Abstract
The following is a study that was conducted over a three week period to evaluate the effectiness of literature circles in reading comprehension. During the three weeks five separate literature circles were run and analyzed. To evaluate the effectiveness of the literature circle observation, interviews and a short multiple choice test were used. Once the data was collected and analyzed there was a noticeable increase in reading comprehension during the literature circles. As shown in the data there is strong evidence that literature circles do help with reading comprehension but not in all areas. Teachers should be able to understand the positive effects the literature circle had on these students and also understand the reasons why not all the data may not support the literature circles.
The purpose of this research project is to determine whether students’ comprehension will increase if they are involved in a literature circle. To evaluate the effectiveness of the literature circle on comprehension the following methods will be used: observations, interviews, and a short test pertaining to the readings completed. A better understanding of the literature circle and when and how it is best used to improve comprehension is the desired outcome.
I want to conduct this study on literature circles to explore the idea that reading comprehension can increase by using this teaching method. As a reading education student I understand the importance of ensuring a student is actually understanding what they are reading and not just seeing the words on the page. I have watched many students who can read at a quick pace and to outsiders that may appear to show that student is a good reader. Unfortunately being able to decode words is only half the battle in reading instruction. Since it is very easy to measure how many words a minute a student can read many instructors decide to focus on that aspect of reading education because they can show growth during their intervention. Since comprehension is a more difficult activity to measure it often gets overlooked. These days schools and parents want to see results and have hard facts about everything. This is a difficult task in comprehension instruction.
One problem with comprehension evaluation is that it can become very subjective. Since all the readings of the student are going to be different it is also hard to compare results. Just because books are on the same reading level as one another doesn’t mean that there is a little variance in the difficulty. That being said the environmental factors of the student also come into play in comprehension. If a student was not interested in what they were reading or had a personal matter on their mind that caused a lack of focus their comprehension of what they read at that point could be lowered.
With all the potential troubles with reading comprehension a literature circle appears to be a strong solution to remedy many issues facing a teacher. It allows the students to be active members of the lesson by putting the pace and direction of the discussion in their control. By giving the students the ability to run the lesson the teacher also increases the excitement level for learning as well as potentially increasing the involvement of all the students in the group.
Research Question
Will there be a noticeable improvement in students’ reading comprehension when a literature circle is implemented in place of their standard reading instruction?
Literature Summary
King (2001) describes a literature circle as a small group who read the same text and come together to talk about was read. With this interaction between students, a community of readers is created. By creating this community, reading is viewed by the participants as a process not just a task to be completed. Wood and Blanton (2009) continue this idea of reading being a process with their idea that given the opportunity to participate in a literature circle students will take ownership of the lesson. By taking ownership the material becomes more meaningful to the students and that in turn will create better comprehension of the material read.
Ketch (2005) focuses on the conversation aspect of the literature circle as the explanation of why they may be a more effective method of comprehension. Conversation encouraging critical thinking may in fact take place in the literature circle. When students engage in a quality discussion on a given reading it allows them to share their ideas and defend them with facts from the reading and it also puts them in a situation where they have to listen to the other members of the groups ideas and hear their facts that support their point of view. By going through this process students ideas are challenged and that can cause either confirmation of their thought or it will cause them to change their thought but it is changed because of information presented.
Although a literature circle can be apowerful comprehension tool, it needs to be reinforced to maximize its effects. Llyod (2004) discusses a technique used as a follow up to the literature circle that is simple and effective. The teacher needs to simply ask two questions when the literature circle is completed: 1)“What was a powerful question raised in your group today?” 2)“How did that question help you understand the book better?”. Because of the generality of these questions, they are asked to the entire class instead of individual groups saving the teacher time. Wood (2009) has a similar method for the students to reflect on their reading, a student reflection/reaction form. Similar to Llyods follow up questions, this form provides the students a way of showing what they learned from a reading in a written format after they have completed the reading.
Unfortunately not all literature circles are created equal and there are times when the students do not cooperate. Clark & Holwadel (2007), give the example of two students who would continually kick one another throughout the group meeting. The key issue with this behavior was that the students were not engaged in the process and therefore missed the questions that were being asked by their group members. This, of course, made the time spent in the literature circle very unproductive activity for the two engaged in the behavior,in addition to putting the rest of the group at risk of not getting the full benefit of the activity.
Along with demonstrating the potential negative outcomes of a literature circle, Clark & Holwadel (2007), also give two methods to help prevent problems from arising. The first idea they share involves what they call a “membership grid.” The membership grid is given out to each member of a newly formed literature circle to help build a community. In the grid the students answer questions about themselves and share the information with the rest of their group. By doing this activity members see that others in their group have similar interests and backgrounds causing them to form connections with one another helping the group to form a community faster.
The other technique is using poker chips as a way of budgeting the amount of ideas each member can contribute in any given discussion. By limiting the amount of ideas each member can share it helps to prevent one student from dominating the conversation and it also helps the quiet student open up and share their ideas because no one person is dominating the discussion. In both cases the students have to think about what they are going to contribute and knowing they only have a limited amount time, they are forced to really think through their ideas helping them to better understand what they read.
Whiten (2002), discusses a very different technique to help children express themselves and contribute their ideas to the group, this is drawing a picture that shows something from the reading that was meaningful in their mind. This technique requires the groups to read the text and then before discussing the reading, taking a few minutes to draw what they took from the reading. After everyone is done with their drawing they all share what they drew and that is the catalyst for conversation. Depending on the amount of time and the size of the class, each literature circle can draw a team picture that is shared with the entire class as a means of starting a conversation. Using art as a conversation starter could encourage students who may be artistically talented but possibly shy, to contribute to the class discussions. It also helps to build the sense of community throughout the group and the entire class since the artistic child can use their skills to help their group allowing the other students to better know their fellow classmate.
Literature circles have the potential to be a very powerful teaching tool as this research shows. With proper planning and management the benefits can far out weight the negatives in this activity. By utilizing literature circles in the classroom a teacher can expect to increase the critical thinking, improve social skills, and increase comprehension of their students’. With the many modifications that can be used with this teaching method it seems that a literature circle could be used in any classroom with any level student.
Methods
Context
I conducted this study in a small elementary school in the mountains of western North Carolina. The classroom where this study was preformed was a Title 1 pullout room. The class would begin everyday by the students coming from their normal classroom to the reading room and sitting down until everyone arrived. At that point the instructor would greet everyone and have a brief dialogue with the group. After the dialogue the teacher would begin the lesson for the day. Since it was all reading instruction there was not much variety to the teachings. She told me that the typical day would be either buddy reading or a silent reading followed by her reading a brief section to the entire class.
Participants
The group I choose to work with consisted of five fourth grade students, one was a female and the other four were males. Each student was in this pullout room because they were reading atleast one year below grade level. All names have been changed for student privacy.
Instruction Method
Each day for the course of the study the students were brought together as a group and the jobs of the literature circle were assigned. The jobs included, director, illustrator, vocabulary and questions. Because of the number of students in the group the jobs were modified to have two people complete the questions job. The students were allowed to volunteer for which job they wanted to participate in but because of the number in the group and the number of jobs available some times they did not get their first choice, but everyone got to complete every job at some point in the study. The only job that had to be repeated was that of the questions and each student completed that job twice.
Once the jobs were assigned the group was handed their reading for the day. After they had their reading selection the group then chose how they wanted to complete the reading selection that day. Each day the group chose to read silently. After the students were finished the reading they stayed in their seats to complete their jobs so they could share their information with the group.
The director then took over the lesson and would lead the group in the discussion of the day’s reading. He or she chose the order of the information the group shared. This was where the teacher had to sit back and give only minimal feedback if any. The only interaction that I had with the group during this time was to keep them on track if the director couldn’t which only happened once. Also to clarify a point only when the students had tried to discuss it and also tried to find it in the reading which happened a couple times when the question was not clearly described in reading. The group dynamics changed everyday as did the flow of the conversation.
Data Collection
I chose to collect four forms of data throughout the research project. These forms were chosen to best evaluate the effectiveness of the use of literature circles. The forms were, structured observation, interviews with participants, a short test, and an interview with the normal instructor.
Structured Observations
The structured observation was the most telling of all the data that was collected in this study. During each literature circle I would observe the students during all phases of the process. It was very telling to see how they would approach the reading for the discussion that was going to take place. It was also interesting to note how they would prepare for their individual job for the literature circle. Notes were taken daily and during every literature circle completed.
Interviews
The interviews that were conducted took place after all the literature circles had been completed. They were semi-structured in a format which gave me the flexibility to gather information from areas that I didn’t anticipate. (See appendix A) The interviews took less then ten minutes each and each one was recorded then transcribed. During the interviews the students told me what about the process they enjoyed and what they did not.
Short Test
One testwas administered after the completion of the literature circle. It consisted of four questions that were multiple choice that were used to evaluate the level of comprehension of the group. (See appendix B) There was no time limit given to the students and each one completed the test in less then five minutes a piece. There was also a test given at the start of the project after the students completed a reading using the classroom teachers instructional method. (See appendix C)
Teacher Interview
A short interview was done with the supervising teacher in order to gauge the level of interest and learning that took place during the literature circles. This interview was recorded and transcribed. It was semi-structured in design and was completed in roughly ten minutes. (See appendix D)
Findings
During this study it was obsevered that the students motivation to read increased during literature circles. When I first introduced the idea of a literature circle to the class I received a rather standard reaction to a new form of learning from children. The deep breaths and lowered shoulders that happen when they think they are going to have to do something that is going to be boring and hard for them. Their reluctance was evident from their early participation level during the first attempt at a literature circle. All of the students were very shy and did not contribute their ideas very readily at first. Once the initial fears went away and they became comfortable, the group started to flow and open up toward one another. By the second day, the students’ excitement started even before the literature circle; they entered the room quickly and sat down ready to start the lesson. All the hands in the class were up in the air to ensure they got the job they wanted for the day. This level of excitement was very welcomed after the start of the first day. By the end of the first story read, there was an energy in the classroom and Devyn asked, “can we read another because I want to be the illustrator today?”(Field Note 4/9/10). Each time the literature circle was run, students opened up more and their interactions were much richer than previous times. Even the shyest members opened up and embraced the lesson as well as adding quality comments to the discussions. One of their favorite things that started to happen after the second lesson was talking about what they would do if they were a character in the story. The ideas they would come up with were amazing and sometimes off the wall. After the first time, the director was instructed to have the each member give a fact from the reading that would support their ideas, to ensure everyone was contributing something worthwhile. Once the group had completed several literature circles I noticed an attitude towards them that I didn’t see at first. All the students were anxious to read and share their ideas about what they read. Every time we got together, they all knew what job they had already done, which ones they had left to complete, and were excited to do them. I asked Caleb what he liked about literature circles and he said, “ Umm, I liked them because they were fun and everyone got to say something.”(interview 4/19/10). Devyn reiterated this idea when I asked him the same question; “ It wasn’t boring like normal reading, umm I got to talk.”(interview 4/19/10). Given my observations and interviews, the students showed that they were more motivated to read during a literature circle than the other instructional methods they have experienced.