Christmas Carol Literature Circles Protocol

1. Everyone will take  a role. It may stay the same entire time, or switch daily.

Discussion Director: Your job is to write down at least five questions for discussion. These questions should be open-ended (not "yes/no" questions) and designed to spark interesting discussion. You also must write a 3-5 sentence response to each of your questions to share with your circle after they have had a chance to answer.During the discussion, your job is to encourage all group members to participate     by involving them in the discussion, to ask follow-up questions when conversation lags, and to be sure that every participant has a chance to present his or her preparation.

Rhetorical Reader: your job is to identify the rhetorical devices the author is using. You can bring forward to the group examples of style such as syntax (tropes, schemes), and diction, or any other ways the author uses language artfully through literary devices (symbolism, theme, etc). For each rhetorical or literary device, write a paragraph discussing what it is and how it affects the reader. Identify at least 3-4 per reading.

Literary Luminary: Your job is to compile at least four quotations from the reading that you think are significant. Be sure to use MLA format for your citations. For each quote, write a paragraph discussing what the quote means and what role it plays in the story. (4 paragraphs total)During the Literature Circle, you will read each quotation to your group, then ask your group what they notice about the quotation, what they think it means, and what role the quotation plays in the story.

Character Connoisseur- you job is to collect examples of characterization. How does this character connect to the overall themes of the story? What do they think? How do they behave in that section? How do they change during the reading? What is their motivation (reason, intention)? How is a character important to the story? What does the author do to make the character come alive? Write a one paragraph character analysis for each character present in the selected reading.

Linguistic Luminary: You job is to shine light on language. You will find new and exciting vocabulary.  Ask yourself while reading, how does Dickens choose words? Do we use some of these words today? Or have some of these words become archaic? Please find ten new vocabulary words, along with the sentence and definition to share with your group during your meeting.

2. Groups will meet daily to discuss each stave

One person at the end of the meeting will email me a summary with:

1.    the ten words  you discussed

2.    the passages you discussed

3.    what was said about the characters

4.    rhetorical /literary devices identified

5.    the questions that were brought up in your group

3. Groups will be assigned  “group tasks” to explore other aspects of the text

4. Work will be placed into group folder