One Best Thing Review - Literature Circles with iPad
Coming to a close on week 10 with this review on a One Best Thing book! After looking through the list, the one titled Literature Circles with iPad stuck out to me because my content area is English. The book downloaded quickly into my iBooks and looks like this!
As I looked through the iBook, I could tell it was put together well and really easy to understand. The pages are broken down with instructions on how to put together a successful literature circle. The video included in the page shown above is a great example that a teacher could show her students, so that they have a better understanding of what they should be doing and what the goal they are working towards is. Then, the book explains in detail how to set up a literature circle in your classroom and a variety of rules to keep the class in order and on task during the activity.
Each literature circle contains 5 jobs or "roll cards" for the students to choose from. The jobs are Discussion Director, Word Wizard, Connector, Passage Master, and an Illustrator. My favorite part of the iBook is how descriptive it is and the amount of information on each page. The iBook includes a page for each job included in a literature circle and describes the task for that job in detail. Each page has a detailed explanation of their task they are responsible for, how to present it, things to remember when completing the task, and even a few app suggestions for that job if they need extra assistance. An example of one of these pages is pictured below.
Each literature circle contains 5 jobs or "roll cards" for the students to choose from. The jobs are Discussion Director, Word Wizard, Connector, Passage Master, and an Illustrator. My favorite part of the iBook is how descriptive it is and the amount of information on each page. The iBook includes a page for each job included in a literature circle and describes the task for that job in detail. Each page has a detailed explanation of their task they are responsible for, how to present it, things to remember when completing the task, and even a few app suggestions for that job if they need extra assistance. An example of one of these pages is pictured below.
After the explanation of the jobs, the iBook provides a sample story for the teacher, which he/she could show to the classroom in order to create a more meaningful learning experience for them. There is also an example of each "roll card" and what a completed version of the tasks look like. These examples could be great not only for the teacher so that he/she knows what to expect of the students, but also a really good idea to show to the students so that they know exactly what is being asked of them and there is no confusion on what their work should look like at the end. Because I included the explanation of the Word Wizard roll card above, the finished sample of a Word Wizard's job is included below as well!
The rest of the book instructs the teacher exactly how to successfully run a literature circle and takes you step by step through the process from beginning to end. It explains the lesson in great detail and gives examples of various situations for the teacher, which can be so helpful when teaching something to a class that you have never done before. After the explanation of the lesson, it also lists the benefits of using an iPad with a literature circle, and how helpful it can be to the students and enhance their learning experience. Lastly, there is an assessment that can be done to bring the lesson/literature circle to a successful close. Every part of this iBook is explained in great detail, and although I am not a teacher just yet, I believe just by using this book I could walk into a classroom and teach this lesson. It answers any questions a teacher may have and shows great examples that not only help the teacher but the students can benefit from as well. I will definitely be keeping this iBook in my library on my iPad and I look forward to trying something like this out one day in my classroom!