Steinke response

After reading the Steinke article and I have also read another one of her books, I have to say that I really like the straightforward, clear way in which she writes. With English as my content area, literature circles are a well-known techniques which I like to use. I would warn, however, to be clear on your goals which employing literature circles. I once tried to use literature circles to have students be able to understand and support each other during the reading of a difficult novel. My goal was to give the students some command of the literary elements that they would need to do analysis, but it turned into students doing a worksheet. They did seem to start to understand the literary elements, but few of the students were able to translate that into deeper understanding of the novel. I feel that it was due to the lack of clear expectations in the assignment and probably making the assignment too compartmentalized.