lighting a fire: What Learning Looks Like

I've been reflecting lately on what learning looks like, and I was excited to see a true picture of it yesterday. When Marie and I set out to try Literature Circles this quarter, we were definitely apprehensive and completely unsure about what we were doing. With a lot of help from our tech coach, we were able to set up completely paperless (except for the texts!) Literature Circles. Last week, I presented the four books they would be able to choose from: Code Talker (by Joseph Bruchac), A Long Way from Chicago (by Ricahrd Peck), The Liberation of Gabriel King (by KL Going), and Jackie and Me (by Dan Gutman). We chose books at a variety of levels, and the boys used Survey Monkey to select their top three choices. We passed out books last week, and I gave them the "job" that they would be starting with (we aren't sure how the jobs will work, and we may end up doing away with them completely after a few meetings). We had our first official meetings in class yesterday, and I was incredibly impressed with what I saw. As I walked around the room and listened to the conversations taking place, I heard boys making connections to the text, pulling out examples of figurative language, and sharing reflection journal entries from the night before. When I ponder what learning looks like, I'm sure that it looks more like the videos below and less like the way I was taught. It is student-centered, student-led, and that is what makes this venture so exciting. As I continue to read about Literature Circles (Harvey Daniels' books have been very helpful, especially Mini-Lessons for Literature Circles and Literature Circles: Voice and Choice in Book Clubs and Reading Groups), I think this will be something we implement throughout the school year next year. We'll continue to supplement with short stories and will definitely continue to do whole-group reading.