Another Transcript I Submitted to Phi Delta Kappan

Roles in Literature Circles and the Benefits of Expertise
By: Karen Yancey M.Ed, July 2007

In the school year of 2006-2007, I taught three sections of regular English IV students in an east Houston school district. The school was fifty-five percent Hispanic, thirty-three percent African American and nine percent Caucasian. Fifty-six percent of the students were economically disadvantaged but only nine percent were limited English proficient. All three periods had a mix of low to high achieving students including students that were limited English proficient and some with low reading abilities. Some behavioral problems stemmed from students with Attention Deficit Disorder but most of them were the result of home conditions, standing with peers and maturity level. Many of my students worked so sleeping in class was sometimes a problem.

Not Another Assignment!

Motivation to complete individual class assignments had been a problem during the previous semester even though I used culturally relevant and engaging essays to teach writing skills. I decided to create literature circles to spur the interest of my students as the class was scheduled to read Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

Collaborative learning has become ubiquitous in both primary and secondary schools in recent years. The concept is simple, student collaboration contributes to a better product and allows sharing of ideas, peer encouragement, and social skills development. To prevent the problem of “social loafing” or complaints that “the teacher isn’t teaching” I followed the advice of Michaelson, Fink and Knight in their article “Designing Effective Group Activities,” and designed effective group assignments that motivated discussion and required a high level of individual accountability.

However, I wondered if I should give my students the freedom to switch roles during the study of the texts. Many experts on the topic of literature circles believe switching roles is a good policy because it allows students to practice different skills. However since motivation to complete the work was my primary concern, I considered that permanent roles might make the students more comfortable with the project and take on pride in their work. My main question was would my students gain a clear understanding of the text if they continue to perform one role as the group explores new material?

Lets Circle-Up

My second and fourth periods had literature circles that allowed for changing roles. My third period conducted literature circles that maintained permanent roles. The groups met once a week over a two month period from the end of January to the end of March. Since research states that group work is more effective if it is used at least once a week (Marzano, 88), I had my students form literature circles that met weekly. Each group had four members in accordance to Marzano, Pickering and Pollock’s advice in Classroom Instruction that Works that cooperative learning groups be small teams of three or four members to be effective (88).

In late January, when we started the Shakespeare unit, I required all of my classes to read an instruction sheet that had clearly defined group roles. In“Project CRISS: Creating Independence through Student-owned Strategies” Carol Santa et al. suggest that each group member take on a role before reading so that he/she can come to the group prepared to take on a specific task (64).

Roles combine a variety of strategies within a discussion group (Santa, Haven and Valdes, 64). The strategies I chose were note-taking done by the recorder, making connections to the text done by the facilitator, ensuring courteous feedback done by the peacekeeper and discussion direction done by the team captain. The team captain kept the group on task and recorded group responses to weekly literature questions. The recorder completed activity log sheets by recording discussions and actions taken by the group. For example, if the group needed to look up an unfamiliar word, the recorder noted it. The facilitator/reflector asked thought-provoking questions that connected the text to the real world and made sure the recorder completed the activity log. The peace keeper/encourager enforced courteous feedback among group members and ensured each member had a chance to speak.

Mary Daniels Brown stated in an article that “modeling the various roles within a small group in front of the whole class is an effective way of teaching students how those roles allow the group to function (2).”During the first week of the project, I carefully instructed four students in each class on how to be a team captain, a recorder, a facilitator and a peace keeper. Then we presented a properly functioning group in front of the class.

I read that the use of role sheets is important to prevent feelings of confusion because students are working together and analyzing text in ways they are not familiar (Alexander, 3). Therefore, I required my students to fill out a pre-printed Group Member Role sheet and Notes on Group Activity log during each discussion.

The Notes on Group Activity log served a greater purpose than recording data. Cooperative learning works best when students are actively explaining ideas to each other rather than giving each other answers (Slavin, 90). The goal was to record statements made by group members to other group members such as higher level questions asked by the facilitator, explanations made by the captain or decisions made by the group. This practice helped the group formulate responses to the group questions by showing them the thinking process happening between group members.

They also had to respond to the weekly assignment sheet of group discussion questions. Throughout February and March, the students read one or two chapters each week and listened to class lessons focusing on themes from those chapters. Then the literature circle met on Wednesday or Thursday to discuss the questions before the quiz on Friday. Each group role had a specific task in relation to the discussion questions. Cooperative groups must have well structured tasks to be effective forms of learning (Marzano, 88).

I used another strategy to prevent social loafing suggested by Michealsen, Fink and Knight in “Designing Effective Group Activities” (4). Each week we previewed the discussion questions before the groups assembled. This task actually helped them to become more comfortable with the work and prompted them to think independently.


We Did It!

Both the permanent role group and changing role group had low scores in the first week. I expected low grades at the beginning because it usually takes one and a half to two weeks for students to learn how to handle group discussion (Brown, 2).
*The permanent-role group had an average grade of an 83 on the first assignment. *The rotating-role group had an average of a 70 on the first assignment.
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There was a sharp increase the next week as they became more practiced at interacting with each other.
*Over the first three weeks the permanent-role class, jumped from an 83 on the first assignment to a 93 average and remained around a 92 average during the next five weeks. The grade dropped during the last two weeks to end at an 83 average because of increasing difficulty of the Frankenstein unit.
*Over the first two weeks the changing-role class average increased from a 70 to an average of an 83. Then over the next five weeks, the average followed a shallow slope from a 83 to a class average of 90. Again, during the last two weeks of the unit, the class average decreased to an average of an 80 due to the increasing difficulty of the work.

You can see the permanent role group reached a level of group proficiency reflected in high grades faster than the changing role group. It took five weeks for the changing role group to reach a grade of a 90 whereas it took only two weeks for the variable group to reach the same grade. The low scores compared to the permanent-role group are not due to different academic levels of the classes because the rotating-role group statistics are an average of two classes that used this strategy, second period and fourth period. This leaves the question, would the permanent role group continue to outperform the changing role group over a longer period of time?

I also recorded the average grades of each class on the unit tests and quizzes for both literature units. The permanent-role group consistently performed higher than the changing-role group. This shows their understanding of the material was much more thorough.
* The permanent-role group started the two units with an 81 average and ended with an 89 average. The highest average of the permanent-role group during the time period was a 91 on a quiz and the lowest was a 78 on a quiz.
*The changing-role group started with a 79 average and ended with an 80 average. The highest average of the changing-role group on a quiz was an 80 and the lowest was a 70.


What Did We Learn?

The benefits of keeping a designated role during literature circles are clear in the consistently higher grades the variable group sustained compared to those of the control groups. However, I recommend the use of permanent group roles for groups that meet infrequently over a long period of time. The permanent roles simplified the process and allowed my students to recall their function in the literature circle more quickly. Therefore, they could devote more creative energy on processing the material. However, for groups that meet several times a week, I believe the benefits of a changing roles model would outweigh the benefits of expertise because students would recall how to perform each roll more easily and be able to practice more skills.

Some of my students struggled with the vocabulary in the text and had a difficult time doing the assignments. Also, some of my students had an easier time understanding the events in the stories when they visualized them. Next time, I will modify the roles in the literature circles to use these specific skills. The work of others such as Santa, Haven and Valdes also recommend roles such as illustrator and vocabulary expert (64).

Individual roles serve a critical function in literature circles but collaborative work that requires specific roles can be incorporated science and math classes also. Members can function in permanent roles as team captains, recorders, equation calculators and vocabulary experts. I encourage teachers in all disciplines to use clearly-defined roles that remain fixed during the length of the project as long as the groups meet infrequently.


Bibliography


1. Alexander, Kim. "Integrating Literature Circles Into A Secondary Classroom." http://www.oecta.on.ca/special/bestpractice02.htm (accessed Feb 2007).

2. Brown, Mary Daniels. "Literature Circles Build Excitement for Book." 2004. http://www.education-world.com/a_curr/curr259.shtml (accessed Feb 2007).


3. Marzano,Robert, Debra Pickering and Jane Polluck. Classroom Instruction that Works. Alexandria, Virginia: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2001.

4. Michaelsen, Larry. L. Dee Fink, Arletta Knight. "Designing Effective Group Activities To Improve the Academy http://www.ou.edu/idp/tips/ideas/groupact.html. (accessed Feb 2007).

5. Santa,Carol, Lynn Haven and Bonnie Valdes. Project CRISS: Creating Independence through Student-owned Strategies . Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 2004.


6. Slavin, Robert E. "Debra Pickering and Jane Polluck. ." Educational Leadership 57, no. 3 (1991): 89-91.

While I Was Teaching an English Class, I Read a Good Essay on Writing

I recently read an essay by Pat Mora to a English classroom full of bored students. The essay was entitled My Own True Name and it was from a collection of poems for children by Mora.

I was impressed by the essay because it was about how to write. Intended for young writers but applicable to anyone, she speaks of reading extensively, collecting vocabulary words like objects and writing and revising regularly. She spoke of how it is important to write about the pains and joys of life.

I couldn't find a copy of the essay online but I did find another essay on her website about Leading From the Heart.

Addressing the Dropout Issue from an International Perspective

I read an article in the Phi Delta Kappan entitled Keeping Youths in School: An International Perspective . This article examines the vocational training strategies other countries use to help reduce the number of school dropouts. American tends to use vocational training as a way to entice unmotivated students into education. Whereas,other countries have a higher regard for vocational training and nationally respected licenses can be obtained in these programs. Employers trust these programs to prepare workers and the programs themselves are constructed to allow people to train for white-color jobs in their field.

With its “college for all” mantra, the United States uses VET (career and technical training in the U.S.) mainly to engage unmotivated students and introduce them to various career options. This strategy makes the United States an outlier. In the more successful countries, VET has little to do with engaging unmotivated students, though that is one robust outcome, nor with keeping them from dropping out, though completion rates are high and pathways from VET to tertiary education and training are increasingly available and encouraged. These countries have expanded VET from its earlier guild, handcraft, and blue-collar focus to include white-collar occupations and those requiring sophisticated technical skills. VET also prepares young people for citizenship and lifelong learning. Completion of a VET program certifies that the young person has the nationally standardized qualifications for their chosen occupation.

Nancy Hoffman



I have thought in the past that the U.S has the wrong philosophy on how to address the educational needs of its younger generation who are not academically inclined.

America has a sink or swim philosophy which rewards those who apply themselves to the theoretical education that is prevalant in the public schools.
But it is also important to remember that we applaud people who work their way up through hard work and luck even without an education. Bill Gates became successful without a college education. But in times of high unemployment young people who would have done well training in an occupational environment have much less hope. More blue-color jobs are going overseas and fewer opportunities are available to young people who learn better from on-the-job training.

As a country, we do not regard vocational training as part of a social support system like other countries.

VET programs aren't designed to cure at-risk youths of their potential for disconnection or dropping out. Although there are exceptions, the better-performing countries structure combinations of work and learning to address specifically the needs of struggling young people. Approaches include:

Youth guarantees. The notion of a youth guarantee is gaining popularity as governments struggle to protect young people from the economic downturn. The European Union is working to create a youth guarantee that will ensure a job, apprenticeship, or other education option to young people under the age of 25 years within six months after they've left the labor market or school. From 2010, this entitlement will be provided after four months and includes income supports. Australia, the United Kingdom, Norway, the Netherlands, and New Zealand have variants of such policies.

Mutual obligation policies. Also called “activation policies,” these entail “mutual obligation” agreements among young people, their families, and the state. Young people must actively seek work or be in a combination of work and school in exchange for targeted actions to help them. In some countries, young people put their income supports in jeopardy if they refuse education or work.

Adapted work and learning programs. Where VET is the standard pathway for young people not headed for academic and research careers, it entails a return on employers' investments, including the chance to get to know, train, and hire the young people most suited to their enterprises. To serve at-risk youths, countries alter and adapt standard VET policies and add incentives for employer participation.

Nancy Hoffman

It seems to me that the very reason why we celebrate self-made people, is because they did not get any social support. But very few people can achieve fame by being self-made. For the majority of Americans, basic needs must be met before they can be productive citizens.