Textmasters: Bringing Literature Circles To Textbook Reading Across The Curriculum

By Author: peter
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If students of today were to walk into a science classroom of their parents' generation, what differences would they see? Maybe they would notice the lack of technology, but that might be the only difference. If it was not a lab day, the teacher would likely be standing or sitting in front of students, directing them to read a certain number of pages from the textbook, and asking them to answer the questions at the end of the chapter. Return this student to their current classroom, and it is likely the same literacy practices would be employed, albeit enhanced with the use of interactive whiteboards or electronic texts.

A group of middle school students, their teacher, and I challenged this traditional notion of content area textbook reading in their classroom. Together we embarked on an action Hublot Replica Watches research project that ended with the creation of the strategy that we call Textmasters.

This article describes the process of implementing Textmasters, as well as the action research project that documents its efficacy ...
... in content area, middle school classrooms.

Traditional literature circles were described by Harvey Daniels in the early 1990s (Daniels, 1994). In this classroom practice, students divide into groups to read fiction books that the teacher has briefly introduced to the whole class. During sessions, students assume various "roles" that guide their reading (Burns, 1998; Daniels, 1994; Peterson & Belizaire, 2006). Students meet on a regular basis to discuss agreed-upon sections of the book, rotating the roles among members of the group. The strategy ends with students presenting their book to their peers through creative presentations. Traditionally, the literature circle strategy was applied to fiction. Recently, it has been updated and used with a variety of texts, including nonfiction.

A similar framework was proposed for book clubs (Raphael, Florio-Ruane, & George, 2004; Raphael & McMahon, 1994). Designed to specifically meet the needs of adolescent readers, book clubs use a variety of instructional groupings to engage students in responding to text. Whole-group instruction in read?ing strategies, whole-class discussion on the readings, and student-led, small-group discussion help students bridge the transition from early elementary reading experiences to intermediate and middle school texts (Raphael et al, 2004).

We began our action research study by following one chapter of traditional textbook instruction. Students read the assigned reading on their own, answered questions Breitling Replica provided by the textbook, reviewed the material using a study sheet developed by Mrs. Stelkan, and then took a chapter test. Seventy-three students took the chapter test and the average score was 86%. This score provided the baseline for our action research study.

Literature circles and book clubs bring together powerful research-based theories of literacy education (Daniels, 1994; Raphael et al., 2004; Raphael & McMahon, 1994). Researchers have examined the discourse that takes place during literature circle meetings and found that discussion is often purposeful and critically minded (Latendresse, 2004; Long & Gove, 2003; Sandmann & Gruhler, 2007). The strategy has been found to empower students who thrive in the small-group setting, allowing for marginalized voices to be heard (Johnson, 2000; Sandmann & Gruhler, 2007, Scott, 1994). Students often feel an increased sense of responsibility toward their group and their own learning through the use of the various roles and discussion (Owens, 1995; Scott 1994).