| Summary:
Improving oral skills in small group discussions Mainstream teachers frequently comment that students are unable to participate fully in small group discussions about literature. Literature circles (Daniels, 1994) with an additional focus on higher level question formation, theme development and interaction cues, enhance the small group discussion skills of students. Before the discussion, literature circles require the students to read the text and prepare one of the roles of discussion director, literary luminary, connector or illustrator. Discussion director writes five good discussion questions. Literary luminary plans for the reading of four passages. Connector relates the text to the real world in four different ways. Illustrator picks a scene to draw and shares a brief, written reflection on the scene. While preparing for the literature circle, students benefit from a list of specific themes to insure their role sheet preparation covers important topics. Question starters arranged according to Bloom’s taxonomy (comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis), assist students in forming discussion questions at a variety of complexity levels. Prior to the literature circle, the students review posted interaction cues on how to encourage reluctant speakers, discourage monopolizers, focus the distracted and silence the interrupters. After the discussion, the director offers a significant contribution from the literature circle to the class for a cross-group discussion. Students evaluate their performance and learning through a reflection on the discussion. Participants in this demonstration will review modified role sheets and interaction cues. The presenter will show the quality of sample student discussion contributions and reflections. This demonstration will highlight the advantages of the modified literature circle format in improving small group discussion skills of students. |
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