Literature Circles

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Hi, I'm a third grade teacher who is interested in starting literature circles. I don't really know too much about them and am looking for other 3rd grade teachers to post how they use them and how they work and how the kids do working in them. Thanks

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I'm also a third grade teacher. I have literature circles with my students and it is working very well. The key to a good program is having access to multiple copies of the same book. That was a stumbling block for me for a long time. Once you get past that then you can get started. This is what I do. I choose four books that are of high quality and will allow for some thinking. I do a book talk for each of the books. Then the students write down their first, second, and third choices. I put them in groups according to their preference. Most students end up with their first or second choice as long as all of the books are good. I have 4 or 5 students in each group.
For our initial meeting we meet to decide how much to read for the next meeting. The students read on their own, with a partner, or with parents depending on their ability level. (The rest of the time they read books even more closely related to their reading level.) I tend to choose books that are a little on the high side because the discussion helps students understand and it challenges them.
Before each meeting students are expected to fill out the literature group form. The students write down their prediction for the part they are going to read. (A student suggested we do that this year.) They also write down what happened in the part they read. I tell them to focus on the highlights and give some more information about them. For vocabulary they chose 4 words from the story they found difficult and write down the page numbers where they can be found. They also must include a "thinking" question. That part takes time.
When we meet in the group I fill out a form that says if they read the book or not and I rate their notes on a scale of 1 to 4. After the discussion I rate their participation in the discussion on a scale of 1 to 4. During the discussion we talk about what happened. When their is disagreement I refer them back to the book to prove their point. We also look up the words and discuss what they mean and how to pronounce them if that is a problem. We also go through each person's thinking question.
This whole process takes about a half hour. Each group meets twice a week. All in all, it works well.
Hope this helps you.

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Laura Candler has some very good resources explaining how to do Literacy Circles at http://home.att.net/~teaching/litcircles.htm