Transforming Literature Circles with Bloom's Taxonomy at EL Conference

She uses "Bloom's Taxonomy Critical Questioning Guide" that has question starters that will broaden the types of questions that they ask (especially for lower level readers), but for higher thinkers she only let's them use it for a few days and then takes it away.

Goal: to vary questions and types of thinking students do.  What actually matters is the discussion.

Students are given a journal to write questions and answers at varying levels.  Their is a rubric which she uses to quickly evaluate the quality of their questions and answers.

Having students choose from a bank of questions (post-its displayed on several different tables that several groups already categorized) with the prompt of choosing the question that would lead to the best discussions. 

Kids have to be taught how to refer to text to answer questions.  Expertise lies in the text, the burden of proof is in the text.

There's no judgment on some levels being better than others, kids may need to ask questions on different levels.  I wonder are her literature circles heterogeneous or homogeneous?

How did your thinking about this book change just by asking questions and thinking about questions?
--> I had a much better understanding of what I didn't understand
--> it gets students prepared for the discussion, students aren't allowed into lit circle until they have

After lit circle, have students revise their answers?

Unit structures and resources:

• using bloom's to ask questions (2 lessons)
• lit circle journals (on-going)
• lit circle analysis (on-going)
• videotape lit circles, class would analyze how it went and what could be better
• group evaluation rubrics
• self evaluation rubrics
• NO INTERRUPTIONS!
• fishbowl lit circles
• clarifying vs. extending: arriving at a new understanding
• the difference: clarifying are lower level questions that are necessary for comprehensions

• how to answer questions (shallow vs. deep)
• using text evidence
• thinking metacognitively about your answers 

•  teacher's college reading and writing project has model video of lit circles

 Takeaways:

• use videotape modeling as a rational, unemotional tool to lift discussion
• use her template to make a journal for students' questions, perhaps also give them the questioning book as a resource to help them write questions.
• increase the amount of revision that occurs as they sift through questions and prioritize the best ones
• day 1: read and write questions
• day 2: lay out questions on post-its and do a gallery walk to select the 2-3 best questions that will lead to a good discussion.  Write them down, along with answers
• day 3: have discussion
• day 4: product?

• bookmarks with assigned reading for week (cute)

Questions:

• Should the product be tied to their questions? What should the products of lit circles be?
• How do you teach them to balance clarifying and extending questions?  Should the discussion be divided into one based on clarifying questions and one on extending?  Because the prompt "choose the question that will lead to the best conversation" is very different from "choose the question that will help you understand the story best" -->you can be flexible with this
• the tuning protocol and guiding questions protocol is on EL Commons
• What is the best way to get them to generate lots of questions at a variety of levels and then pair that down to 1-2 for discussion?--> in the beginning of the year she really helps them pair down and prioritize their questions, but eventually they get to the point where they don't need all of that broke down. 
• Are there ever any products that get produced from lit circle discussions? -->yes, but nothing specifically from their questions and answers in their journals
• Do you read and grade their journal entries every day? --> yes, very informally she walks around each morning and fills out the rubric.  students know that she will eventually collect their whole journals to do a summative assessment.