Choosing+Books


 * What Do Student's Read in Literature Circles?**
 * Children's literature
 * Young adult literature
 * Classic Literature
 * Biography
 * History
 * Science

**What DON'T Students Read in Literature Circles?**
 * Short, linguistically controlled basal stories
 * Content overloaded textbook chapters.

**Why?**
 * A good literature circle book touches something with the reader's heart and mind and compels a response!
 * The book must be "something worth taking about"
 * Look for books with strong plot, several characters, imagery, and figurative language, strong vocabulary words, a strong climax, and at least one theme.

**Choosing Books Criteria**
 * Comprehensible to students of DIFFERENT abilities and interests.
 * Reflect students' language needs and skills
 * Address issues/topics relevant to students lives.
 * Povoke students' thinking and discussion
 * [|Choosing books]

**Organizing Books**
 * Members of each group will read the same book.
 * Other groups in the same classroom will be reading different books.
 * Groups may participate ina class-wide culminating activity.

**Different Organizational Methods**
 * Author Study
 * Theme Study
 * Genre Study

**Assigning Books**
 * Teacher chooses about 5-6 different books.
 * Give book talks to arouse interest
 * In groups let students look through the books (teach students how to make good book choices)
 * Have students rank their choices 1 - 3 with reasons for their rankings.
 * Teacher collects and arranges groups accordingly.

**Obtaining Books**
 * Share book sets with other teachers at your grade level in your school and perhaps neighboring schools.
 * Use bonus points from your students' book orders to buy book sets
 * Work with your schoola nd public libraries to gather multiple copies
 * Obtain grants to buy books (possibly through PTA - depending on your school).
 * Search bazaars, garage sales, goodwill, and bookstores that sell used books.


 * Links **
 * [|Leveled Books]
 * [|Leveled Books]
 * [|To Teach a Specific Skill]
 * [|The Children's Literature Web Guide]