UCET 2015

Our fourth grade team has implemented digital literature circles as a way to distribute, collect, and collaborate on assignments as groups read leveled, shared texts. Students participate in these literature circles much in the way a regular paper digital literature circle would be put together, but instead of working individually in their notebook, students report their “jobs” on a shared Google Document. We’ve adapted from several literature circle models to come up with the following jobs:

Fiction Literature Circle Jobs:
Connection King/Queen
Sensory Seeker
Question Captain
Inference Investigator
Word Wizard
Descriptive Detective

Informational Text Literature Circle Jobs:
Graphic Guy/Girl
Text Feature Freak
Text Structure Builder
Pop-Up Person
Beyonder:

There isn’t anything particularly special about these jobs. On the surface this task would just fall under “substitution” on the SAMR model. Kids used to use a notebook, now they use a Google Doc. Nothing particularly special about that. There are other aspects of this technology that modifies the task, and makes significant changes to improve learning. Students get to see other students’ work prior meeting, while they’re still reading. That helps them craft their own work. The task also allows students to comment and essentially meet prior to meeting. This model also allows the teacher to monitor student work prior to the meeting, and redirect if necessary.

We plan to share this pedagogical model with others in hopes that they too can use Google Apps to make literature circles a more meaningful experience.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WR_Odf7mB28TT26GZis4xTDa6tzfbJSRrel_svCGUhA/edit?usp=sharing