Digital Literature Circles

I am over the moon with the latest tech assignment.  I had been thinking about digital literature circles for a while.

Many questions held me back such as.....what would it look like?  How would they be graded?

I did what many teachers do and I searched other teacher blogs and websites to see if it had been done before.  I have another teacher friend who told me she had done it before in her classroom as well.  That was what I needed to hear to motivate me to follow my instinct.  It has been done...it can be done....it will be done.

I got to work setting up the expectations in my mind.
I decided that students would use their own personal blogs to write their thoughts.  I then thought that in a true literature circle students share and collaborate.  Then came the idea that commenting on other students blog posts was a must!

 Collaborate...share....reflect.....oh my!

Here is what I developed for expectations and rubric.  Feel free to adapt for your own.  You will notice there are no "official roles".  For the first time through I wanted each student to post, comment and make a connection. 

 

 

Digital Literature Circle Rubric

Back Side Expectations

Digital Literature Circles Expectations

Sweet eh?

Here they are working away on the laptops in class.  We had to switch our access times due to the snow day so now we have to add a day to our expectations.

The students loved it!  They were typing away.  I have a couple of reluctant writers in my room and they were writing away.  They were thrilled.  I am excited to see what comments they come up with.

What do you think?