Students are currently reading the classic novel, Tuck Everlasting.  As we go, they are completing jobs in literature circles, which allows students to cooperatively practice their skills of vocabulary building, connecting text to past experiences, summarizing, and locating literary devices in text.  Students also get to interact online through blogs in a way similar to online college classes they may take in the future.  Once their assigned job is complete, each student responds to the posts on their partners’ blogs, adding to the conversation.  Job descriptions are as follows:

Group Leader (Ms. Hill for this book)	Develop open-ended discussion questions about today’s reading.  Each group member should write their answers/thoughts on the questions.
Literary Device Locator	List 3 examples of simile, metaphor, personification, alliteration, onomatopoeia, idiom, etc. from the days reading on your blog.  Other group members can comment with another that you didn’t include on your list that jumped out to them.
Connector	Your Job is to post to your blog three connections between the day’s reading and other books/articles we’ve read this year or to quotes or warm-ups that we have talked about, or to something that has happened to you or your friends outside of school.  Other group members should each comment with one connection of their own.
Summarizer	Write a three sentence summary of the day’s reading and post onto your blog.  Each partner should comment with one additional detail that wasn’t in the summary.
Word Wizard	Choose three challenging words from this days reading selection and post them on your blog along with their definitions and parts of speech.   Other group members should comment with a sentence for each word.

Blog assignment dates:

April 4	Assigned literature circle job for pages 3-21
April 7	Assigned literature circle job for pages 22-80
April 13	Assigned literature circle job for pages 81-120
April 15	Assigned literature circle job for pages 120-139