This document discusses using technology like Edmodo and iPads to enhance literature circles. It describes how students can use Edmodo to organize roles and reading goals, and tools on iPads like VoiceThread and Coveritlive for multimedia discussions. Various literature circle roles like Discussion Director and Cunning Connector are examined in the context of completing tasks digitally. The document argues this preparation improves the quality of discussions and allows participation from absent students. While literature circles can be done without technology, these digital tools may enhance the experience by facilitating more creative contributions and collaborative preparation work.

1. Literature Circles, Edmodo and iPads
Wednesday, August 01, 2012
8:15 AM
Literature Circles have been around forever. Done well, the strategy is an effective way of engaging
children in reading, while teaching them specific skills and behaviours we use when immersing ourselves
in a text. With clear foci during the instructional part of the Literature Circle session, teachers can direct
children to use these strategies to improve their comprehension and how they respond to text.
One of my main concerns ( and the concerns of many I have worked with in implementing Literature
Circles) is monitoring the independent reading and meetings as well as the work done by children in
between sessions. Technology can play a big part in this and can also be used to enhance, simply and
streamline the whole process.
The Organisation
Traditionally, from my experience, students have a quick meeting to decide how much of the book they
will read before the discussion meeting and what role/s each member will prepare for during the
discussion. Also from my experience, this is sometimes rushed and individuals forget what was
organised. Last year, I began organising Literature Circles via Edmodo. During the meeting, group
members would post their roles in the Edmodo group environment and record what their reading goal
was. No one had excuses and if a group member was absent, he/she could access Edmodo to find out
what to do, how much and when by.
With Edmodo, posting documents on the site is now quite easy. Having access to other group members’
contributions to the Literature Circle discussions means more opportunities to prepare for the meeting.
This kind of collaborative environment also means the students can contribute to all roles rather than
just doing theirs. I think this is better in the long run.
Discussion Director
Students can access key instructions on the role of the Discussion Director from attached files either
within iBooks/Kindle/GoodReader or via
Coveritlive chapter discussion embedded in Edmodo
Edmodo. This access eliminates the excuse I have often received that the student wasn’t sure way to do.
Discussion questions can be posted on Edmodo for teachers and other group members to access before
the meeting. This gives them the opportunity to prepare for the questions rather than going in cold
without knowing what to consider. It also provides the chance for teachers to support the Discussion
Director in framing the questions for quality discussion prior to meeting to help ensure there is
opportunity for real thinking rather than the students getting hit with yes/no questions.
Alternatively to Edmodo, students could use the iPad’s VoiceThread App to set up the questions for
discussion. This gives options for video or audio responses for those who prefer that kind of response.
The Coveritlive app is another opportunity for multimedia discussion opportunities. Both of these
options allow for participation by students who may be absent on the day of the discussion meeting. Of
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2. options allow for participation by students who may be absent on the day of the discussion meeting. Of
course, absent children could also participate in the meeting via Skype on the iPad. All of these options
are of course available through other devices but the simplicity of access to them via the iPad makes it
more conducive for the discussion to flow successfully.
Vocabulary Enricher (Word Wizard)
After highlighting the words or phrases in the text, the Vocab Enricher can use either the inbuilt
dictionaries in the iBooks/Kindle text or any downloaded dictionary app on the iPad if he wants to
copy/paste the information to present to the group. The student could take screenshots of the relevant
highlighted pages and upload these to Edmodo for the others to see. This allows the students in the
group to be prepared for the discussion by knowing which words will be referred to and will be able to
highlight them in their own text beforehand. It means they can also read the words in the context on the
page rather than just getting a list of words to think about. You would need to stress that they don’t rely
on the dictionary as the purpose is to read in context first.
Cunning Connector
Using VoiceThread, Coveritlive, a shared Popplet or a GoogleDoc, the Connector could pre post the
connections she made to a specific part of the text or provide a range of text sections the other students
could connect to. Other students could add pictures or video/audio/text comments for a richer
experience.By doing this collaboratively, the other group members could contribute to this role and
build more connections than the initial Connector made. For me, this is where I would like Literature
Circles to go – rather than individuals being assigned a role, everyone takes on multiple roles which then
just become reading behaviours to use when reading any text at any time. All of the connections
presented in the collaborative document would then be presented at the discussion meeting to be
talked about further. At this point I’ll say that some could see this process of online participation is
eliminating the need for the Literature Circle meeting. I don’t agree with that. From my experience last
year, when I trialled this type of approached with a group on Edmodo, the collaboration online
encouraged the children to be more prepared and at the meeting they were more tuned in because of
the preparations beforehand. They had more to talk about rather than less. The connections were built
upon through feedback which then made them make deeper connections. It allowed me as the teacher
to participate and encourage the deeper thinking through making my own connections and asking the
students questions.
Summariser
Creative options for more engaging summarising of the text could include Comic strip apps like Strip
Designer and Comic Life, both of which can export to Camera Roll for easy importing to Edmodo. The
Book Trailer option in iMovie could be a fun and inventive way to share a summary of a chapter. Of
course, simple text based options through a basic posting on Edmodo ( others could add replies to
improve the summary) or previously mentioned options like Voicethread and Popplet could again be
used to summarise.
Having the digital text available at the reading stage also allows for highlighting key ideas as the
Summariser reads. He can then go to the Highlighted text section in iBooks or Kindle to view all of his
ideas together in a sequential order, thus making it a simpler task to summarise the text.
Literary Luminary
Like the Summariser, having the digital text available at the reading stage allows for highlighting
potential sections of text as the Literary Luminary reads. She can then go to the Highlighted text
section in iBooks or Kindle to view all of her ideas and then select the one that stands out the most. The
presentation of the idea can use the same options previously discussed.
courtesy of Evernote support page
Awesome Illustrator
Using any of the painting/drawing apps on the iPad, the illustrator can come up with a creative
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3. Using any of the painting/drawing apps on the iPad, the illustrator can come up with a creative
presentation here. Exporting the picture to Camera Roll and then to Skitch provides an opportunity for
the Illustrator to add annotations like questions or highlighted components to his artwork. This can be
posted to Edmodo for the other group members to analyse in preparation for the discussion.
Travel Tracer
The Travel Tracer could organise the path of the story through a Popplet (or other mind mapping
app) or a comic strip to present a more visual itinerary. If the book is related to actual locations, the
tracer could plot the journey out on a GoogleMap using the MyMaps app. This app makes using Google
Maps editing tools easier to use on the iPad than using the Internet version. The tracer can add pictures
and text to the map explaining the journey taken during the story. If the map is shared with others, they
can also make their own edits through the app.
Final Thoughts
Literature Circles don’t NEED iPads or other computers in order to be successful. I’m not arguing that.
This is about enhancing the experience and appealing to the desire for children to engage in more
creative ways to share their knowledge. For me, it addresses my concern that sometimes Literature
Circle meetings have occurred without a lot of depth in preparation and discussion. Using Edmodo as
the collaborative conduit between group members and teacher makes sense to me. It worked
effectively last year as well. Adding the iPad as the one all-encompassing tool streamlines the process
for me, despite the fact that nearly every suggestion I’ve made can be done successfully with
alternatives (often cheaper).
Pasted from <http://mgleeson.edublogs.org/2012/04/03/ipads-and-literature-circles/>
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