I love middle school literature circles. Well, once I learned how to plan and manage them to my students’ benefit...then, I started to love middle school literature circles. In my 15 years of experience, I learned that there were 3 main keys to literature circle success.

 Provide students the opportunity to be responsible for their own learning.

Literature Circles are such an effective way for students to learn the idea of taking responsibility for their learning.  They are an opportunity for us to use our creativity and innovation to create an experience for students to take responsibility themselves. The two ways I do this are:

1. Allowing students to schedule their own reading amounts and assigning their own jobs.
• I provide student schedules and calendars to help them accomplish this goal.
2. Allowing students the ability to choose how they will demonstrate their knowledge through a culminating project.
• I provide a handout that allows them to track their ideas...