Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com

Harvey Daniels' Literature Circles introduced tens of thousands of teachers to the power of student-led book discussions. Nancy Steineke's Reading and Writing Together showed how a teacher can nurture friendship and collaboration among young readers. Now, Daniels and Steineke team up to focus on one crucial element of the Literature Circle model; the short, teacher-directed lessons that begin, guide and follow-up every successful book club meeting.

Mini-lessons are the secret to book clubs that click. Each of these forty-five short, focused, and practical lessons includes Nancy and Harvey's actual classroom language and is formatted to help busy teachers with point-by-point answers to the questions they most frequently ask.

• steer my students toward deeper comprehension?
• get kids interested in each others' ideas?
• make sure kids choose just-right books?
• help students schedule their reading and meeting time?
• deal with kids who don't do the reading?
• get kids to pay more attention to literary style and structure?
• help special education and ELL students to participate actively in book clubs?
• get kids to expand their repertoire of reading strategies?
• make sure groups are on-task when I'm not looking over their shoulder?
• introduce writing tools (including role sheets) that support student discussion?.
• help shy or dominating members get the right amount of "airtime?"
• give grades for book clubs without ruining the fun?
• use scientific research to justify the classroom time I spend on literature circles?

Each mini-lesson spells out everything from the time and materials needed to word-by-word instructions for students. The authors even warn "what could go wrong," helping teachers to avoid predictable management problems. With abundant student examples, reproducible forms, photographs of kids in action, and recommended reading lists, Mini-lessons for Literature Circles helps you deepen student book discussions, create lifelong readers, and build a respectful classroom community.

Average Customer Rating:

For High School Teachers	Customer Rating:
The premise behind this book is great. I was hoping to have some instant lessons to use with my fourth grade students. While some of the lessons are adaptable to that age, the activities are really designed for high school classes.

Mini-Lessons for Lit Circles	Customer Rating:
Excellent resource. Lots of great ideas, easily adaptable to various grade levels and abilities.

Very comprehensive and practical

Customer Rating:

A very comprehensive book for those who are interested in using literature circles to boost their students' interest in reading and speaking skills. It can surely help you to gain a very good understanding of what literature circles are and the "tips" provided after the description of every lesson are quite helpful. However, the lessons described in the book are for first language learners and you will need make adaptations if you want to use the ideas with your EFL students.

Exactly what I was looking for to implement literature circles in my classroom!

Customer Rating:

This book is a useful tool if you plan to introduce literature circles into your classroom. It is an easy read, something that one can use as a reference as well as a lesson-planning tool. The way the book is written and organized allows me to use the individual lesson plans with my own literature, whether using novels, short stories or poetry. Having never used literature circles before and being a little skeptical, I am very pleased with this book's ability to explain the benefit and realistic purpose of using them in a high school classroom. The authors have definitely done their research and answer all the questions teachers have regarding the reality of using these circles. I am convinced and am looking forward to implementing them in my own classroom.

Great Teacher Resource!	Customer Rating:
If you are a teacher like me, or if you are forming a literature group, this book is an excellent resource. It will help you work with students to ensure that they have organized and productive literature cirlce discussions.