"The first day of semester determines the tone for the whole semester."
I, together with the other 3 teachers, got an honor to be first people to share. My session was conducted in school library, a place with thousands of open windows to see the world (read = books). These "windows" somehow bring different atmosphere to learn compared to conventional classrooms. One of the proof is my colleagues' enthusiasm that was shown since the opening game till the end of session. The pictures below may depict the joy when they played "Treasure Hunt" games, in which they have to find a treasure (which is one story book hidden within a bulk of other story books) based on the clue given (i.e. the words taken from the book).
The opening game was just one of fun activities can be done with story books that I introduced. Besides, there are "Sustained Silent Reading", Pyramid of Story, Role-playing, creating speech bubbles, etc.
Anyhow, I chose to explore Literature Circles deeper.
Literature circles: What and how
Yes, you're right if you think that I'm a fan of Literature Circles (thanks to Mr Iwan Syahril who introduces me to this technique). I looove it very much, and somehow I want to share my fondness of LC to people around me.
The technique that was originally modified from book clubs in America is really captivating, while at the same time is beneficial to develop many aspects of the members' personality, such as sharpening their critical thinking, language skills, autonomy in learning, and engagement in reading; raising multicultural awareness; promoting other perspectives in social issues; and promoting gender equity (Fox & Wilkinson; Hansen-Krening; Noll; Evans, Alvermann, & Anders, as cited in Daniels, 2002).
In simple way, LC is a small discussion of 4-6 people about a book, story, poem, or article. During the discussion, each member gets a temporary role which is rotated in every meeting, such as Discussion Director, Smart Summarizer, Artful Artist, Word Wizard, Capable Connector, Travel Tracer, Passage Person, etc. For teachers who want to try LC in their class, it is necessary for them to look up the “Eleven Key Ingredients” from Daniels(2002). Those principles are listed below:
1.
Students choose their own reading
materials (in EFL context like in Indonesia, teachers may select the book for them).
2.
Small temporary groups are formed based
on book choice.
3.
Different groups read different books (you can use one book for all groups in EFL classes, though).
4.
Groups meet on a regular, predictable
schedule to discuss their reading.
5.
Kids use written or drawn notes to
guide both their reading and discussion.
6.
Discussion topics come from the
students.
7.
Group meetings aim to be open, natural
conversations about books, so personal
connections, digressions, and open-ended questions are welcome.
8.
The teacher serves as a facilitator,
not a group member or instructor.
9.
Evaluation is by teacher observation
and student self-evaluation.
10. A spirit of playfulness and fun pervades the room.
11. When books are finished, readers share with their classmates, and then new groups form
around new reading choices.
More explanation about the steps and the roles can be found in this site, here or here. I also upload the slides I used here.
Well, those sites said that LC is highly adaptable to different classes around the world. You may change the group formation, drop/add some roles for your students' need, or even do Mini-LC with young learners. You know your class best so you can do necessary adaptation or adjustment for your class.
Fishbowl: When some cats watched fish read
Back to my Circle of Sharing, the teachers were still enthusiast to follow the discussion about what-and-how to do LC. Finish with the explanation, then it comes the time for having a simulation. We did the simulation with Fishbowl technique, in which one group of "fish" conducted the LC and the other groups of "cats" observed the discussion.
The simulation ran so smoothly-yet-lively that the participants did not realize the session was over. They had to move on to another session from another teacher, Ms Iklim (she wrote about that in her blog).
 |
| the teachers were reading the material before having simulation |
Well, this time, I became the person to share but several weeks later, the other teachers will get the chance to do so. Indeed, this kind of sharing time is a good culture needs to be implemented in every school. Instead of inviting motivators or experts in education, it is better to learn from one-another, isn't it? Not only financially-beneficial, this circle of sharing also encourages teachers to always learn and learn. In this case, I remember one of my favorite sayings, "learning from a teacher who always learns is like drinking from a waterfall, while learning from a teacher who stops learning is as if drinking from a stagnant pond." I bet, nobody wants to drink from the stagnant pond, right?
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