Grade 4W Literature Circles

Welcome to Gr. 4 literature circles. If you do not

know what a literature circle is, here is the a quick
run through:
• Literature circles are student directed discussion
groups formed for the purpose of discussing and
presenting a novel.
• You will rotate through a series of assigned
roles. You have a scheduled amount of time to
complete your assigned tasks.
• The groups will meet throughout the week to
read, discuss and present for each section of
reading.
• You will be graded on a rubric for each role that
you complete.
• The roles in each group to be rotated through:
- Discussion Director
- Reporter
- Connector
- Wacky Word Finder
- Illustrator/Creator

Here is a more detailed description of each role.

Discussion Director: Write Your Own Questions
This person will be responsible for the following
tasks:
1. Write 2 questions from the reading.
• One must be a literal question (the
answer is directly from the story)
• One must be an inferential question (open
ended)
Ex. - What do you think…..?
- Why do you think….?
- What might have happened if…..?
2. You must also answer the questions in
complete sentences with thought and detail.
*See rubric for more complete information on
expectation and grading.

Reporter: Re-tell the Main Events

This person will be responsible for the following
tasks:
• Tell the main events of the reading in order. The
reader/listener should be able to understand the
general idea of the book or chapter without
having to read it.
• The re-telling should mention the character and
setting names as the events are told. Avoid
using general pronouns like they, he, she etc.
Ex. The Three Farmers wanted to come up with a
 plan to rid them selves of Fantastic Mr. Fox.
*See rubric for more complete information on
expectation and grading.

Connector: Connect the Story Events to

Personal Experiences
This person will be responsible for the following
tasks:
• Relate an experience of a character in the
reading selection to a similar experience in
your own life.
• There are 2 parts to this assignment:
1. Describe the experience of the character
from the story.
2. Describe the similar experience from your
life. It can also be a connection that you
read about in another story or piece of
writing, a movie you have seen or
someone that you know. If it is not your
own experience be specific as to whom it
came from.
• Check your work for correct spelling,
punctuation, grammar, interesting vocabulary
and neatness.
*See rubric for more complete information on
expectation and grading.
Illustrator/Creator: Represents a Story Event
and Write a Caption
This person will be responsible for the following
tasks:
• Creating a visual representation of an event
from the story. This could take the form of
many different things. Items include:
Illustration, diorama, short movie clip, lego,
clay/plasticine, comic strip, etc.
• You must also provide a written caption to
go along with your work. The caption must
be 1-2 sentences long. It should answer any
of the 5 W’s – Who, When, Why, What,
Where and Why.
*See rubric for more complete information on
expectation and grading.

Wacky Word Finder: Vocabulary Enrichment

This person will be responsible for the following
tasks:
• Find 2 words and their definitions.
- the words must be quality words
with a reasonable level of
difficulty.
- The definitions must come from a
 dictionary.
- Work must be checked for
spelling, grammar and neatness.
• Please provide the page number and paragraph
number of each word.
*See rubric for more complete information on
expectation and grading.