This document outlines literature circles, which are small discussion groups that promote reading comprehension and response. It describes the roles that students take on within literature circles, including discussion director, vocabulary enricher, literary luminary, process checker, connector, and map maker. Each role has specific responsibilities to facilitate discussion, such as asking questions, defining words, reading passages, tracking participation, making connections, and visualizing settings. The goal is for students to engage personally with texts and build a literate community in the classroom.

1. Literature Circles
Cindy Cruz-Cabrera
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2. • To promote reading by creating literate
communities within the classroom.
• To respond personally to literature as
meaning is constructed from the text
• To meet regularly
• To play the different literature circle roles
/ roles of a reader
• To create a log of roles, answers, and
updates for each literature circle
encounter

3. Literature Circle Roles

4. source
Christine Boardman Moen
Teaching with Newbery Books: Strategies for Using Newberys Across the Curriculum

5. Discussion Director
• Develops a list of questions the group might
want to discuss
• Directs focus on main ideas, major concepts,
and the like.
• Open-ended questions
• Statements that will jumpstart the discussion
• Layers of story meaning

6. Vocabulary Enricher
• Brings the group’s attention to unfamiliar or
important words or phrases in the text that
may be used a lot, used in unusual ways, or
are key to the meaning of the day’s reading.
• Shares definitions
• Illustrates use of words or phrases in examples

7. Literary Luminary (Passage Master)
• Selects special passages or sections of the text
to read aloud
• Chooses passages that are memorable or
significant in some way (sad, funny, dramatic,
striking, profound, and the like)
• Discusses the passages

8. Process Checker
• Keeps track of each member’s participation
during the literature circle encounter
• Reviews the group’s meeting
• Writes comments about each member’s role/s
and contributions
• Records any group highlights or problems
during the meeting

9. Connector
• Points out to the group any connections the
reading has with other material the class has
read
• Relates the text with social, cultural and
historical norms or issues, and life and the
world in general
• Text – characters, events, situations, and the
like

10. Map Maker
• Creates maps of geographical locations,
events, and space-time concerns
• Linear time / timeline
• Circular time, and the like
• Setting
• Parallel universes, multiple worlds