Research supports that comprehension is a vital component of reading and life-long literacy, and there are many instructional approaches for teaching reading comprehension. Literature circles are a popular approach which are widely used but have not yet been studied empirically. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of participation in literature circles on the reading comprehension of middle school students. More specifically, the study examined whether there was a difference in the reading comprehension scores of students after participating in literature circles versus after participating in directed reading activity, and whether there were interactions of type of instruction and students' overall reading achievement levels. A mixed design using split-plot ANOVA was used to examine the within-subject variable of treatment, and the between-subject variables of class period, assessments (or passages used), and overall reading achievement levels, as well as determine interactions among the variables. Eighty six eighth-grade students (65% male, 35%female) in a suburban public middle school in the southeastern United States participated in the eight-week study. By class period, students were randomly placed in literature circle groups for four weeks and also participated in whole-class directed reading activity for four weeks. Students read one short story each week and comprehension was assessed with corresponding cloze passages. The reading scores indicated there were no significant differences between the two types of instruction. However, results were statistically significant for all interactions (treatment and passages, treatment and class period, and treatment and overall reading achievement). In addition, when the data were analyzed by overall reading ability it can be argued that the findings have practical significance. Evidence suggests that students with low overall reading achievement levels may not respond to literature circles as positively as other students, and that students with high overall reading achievement may respond more favorably. Overall, literature circles appear to have promise as an instructional approach to reading, especially for non-struggling readers. The discussion expands on the limitations of this study as well as focuses on the need for further scientifically-based research on this popular reading approach.

The purpose of this research was to examine the relation between students' personality traits and the extent of their engagement and facilitation in peer-led literature circle discussions. The research was guided by two questions. To what extent do reading ability, gender, and personality traits predict the quality of verbal engagement in literature circles? and How do highly engaged participants facilitate discussion in the circles? The researcher video-taped 17 fourth-grade students' literature circle discussions for a total of 136.7 minutes collected on two separate occasions across two weeks. To answer the first question student contributions in discussions were quantified into a measure of quality of verbal engagement score (cf. Costa & Kallick, 2000). This quality of verbal engagement score served as the dependent variable in a multiple regression. The seven independent variables were (1) extroversion, (2) agreeableness, (3) conscientiousness, (4) emotional stability, (5) openness, (6) reading ability, and (7) gender. The quantitative analysis in this study revealed that emotional stability was the only significant variable that predicted higher quality of verbal engagement. A post hoc analysis that included group size as an additional variable revealed that groups composed of three members correlated with higher overall quality of verbal engagement. The second question was answered through a qualitative analysis of the following: exploratory talk, elaborative feedback, topic management, confessionals, and accountability. Results of this analysis suggest that highly engaged students frequently enhance the group discussions through facilitation. This study extended the extant research by investigating individual factors that may influence the quality of literature circle discussions as well as suggested a framework for understanding facilitation in peer-led literature circle discussions. Further research is needed to determine the influence of group size and personality on varying grade levels.

This six-week qualitative exploratory case study examined the affordances of the iPad for students and teachers when used to video record discussions about literature. The 13 Grade 6 and Grade 7 participants self-selected their literature circle groups and their novels. Preparation for engaging in student-led literature discussions included specific teaching about participation in a literature circle discussion and a pilot study. Data included six 20-minute student literature discussion videos, students’ individual reflective videos made on the iPads, and individual participant interviews with the researcher audio recorded on the iPad. The student reflective videos were partly transcribed and the participant interviews were transcribed. The data analysis involved open coding of the videos and transcripts using a system of screenshots and written codes. The three codes that emerged most often and that were most relevant to my research questions focused on the concept of audience. The students’ behaviours, when videoing their discussions with the iPad, fluctuated through a continuum from acknowledgement of the teacher as audience to behaviours that suggested the teacher had been forgotten. The concept of audience also included the students themselves as mirrored in the screen, and an ‘other’ audience, which seemed to be YouTube. The findings suggested that the students’ shifting perspective of audience around the iPad screen, which also acted sometimes as a participant and a co-regulatory more knowledgeable ‘other’, seemed to contribute to their self-regulatory behaviours and to their observed and professed engagement. Overall, the analysis of the data revealed the use of the iPad for discussions about literature afforded students with opportunities to self-regulate their behaviours and discourse in ways they seemed to find engaging, and afforded me an unobtrusive window into their discussions, which provided an additional perspective on the students and their work. / Graduate

Outcomes related to students’ reading comprehension and higher-order critical thinking skills, and students’ academic and intellectual engagement following the implementation of a Three-Block Model of UDL-based literature circles pedagogical model were investigated. Fifty-nine (59) students attending three suburban public middle schools took part in the study. The study adopted a mixed-design approach to data collection and analysis, with quantitative data collected from all students, and qualitative data collected from a purposively selected sub-sample of 24 students (12 in each of treatment and control classes). Intervention and control groups were assessed pre and post for measures of reading comprehension using classroom-based assessments, which were triangulated by qualitative data from pre and post semi-structured student interviews to explore students’ academic and intellectual engagement. Quantitative data were analyzed using repeated measures MANOVA’s to determine treatment effects for both groups while qualitative data were transcribed and analyzed thematically using a case study approach. Quantitative results showed a small but significant increase in reading comprehension outcomes for proficient and typical readers in treatment groups compared to their counterparts in control classes, and showed a significantly greater increase in reading comprehension outcomes for students in treatment classes who are culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) and struggling readers. These findings were corroborated by the qualitative results, which showed that students’ academic and intellectual engagement increased in the treatment classes both for proficient readers and struggling readers.

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This case study aims to investigate the relationship between the online reading group meetings (ORG) and reading difficulties among upper-level learners of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL learners). Based on Bernhardt’s constructivist model of L2 reading (1986, 1991) and sociocultural perspectives, this study attempts to answer two research questions: 1. What reading difficulties upper-level CFL learners encountered when they read in Chinese? 2. What components in the online reading group meetings helped upper-level CFL learners to cope with their reading difficulties? How did the components help? Seven Fourth-Year Chinese learners at a university in the United States participated in this study and attended the ORG meetings throughout a semester to discuss five assigned readings. Qualitative research methods were used to collect and analyze the data. The data sources of this study included pre- and post-ORG questionnaires, pre- and post-meeting comprehension checks, pre- and post-meeting self-reports, recordings of the online reading group meetings, and semi-structured interviews. The findings showed a complicated and interactive relationship of the six components in Bernhardt’s model when it came to reading difficulties among upper-level CFL learners. Even though the participants identified word recognition as one of their top reading difficulties when reading in Chinese, the findings showed that extra-text driven components, especially intratextual perceptions and prior knowledge, played an important role in determining the participants’ reading comprehension. Being able to constantly monitor what they learned from each paragraph and which prior knowledge they applied to the reading was found to be a key to improving their reading comprehension. The findings also found reflexivity in dialogic collaboration, especially when the ORG meetings created opportunities for the participants to improve their reading comprehension via peer-to-peer interaction. The patterns of peer-mediated learning included giving corrective feedback, negotiating meaning, learning from listening, strategy coaching, and using English strategically. Whereas the instructor as a facilitator was regarded important to provide timely feedback and facilitate the discussion, the findings suggested that a peer-led group discussion was possible for upper-level CFL learners once they built up their confidence in offering help to their peers. Even though the component of the role assignment seemed to be beneficial for the participants to cope with their reading difficulties in the ORG meetings, the participants did not perceive each role equally helpful nor easy due to various reasons. The study concluded with a discussion of the implications for CFL education, teacher education programs and future research.

After the Mexican-American war, the educational experience of Mexican and Mexican -American students was one of segregation, discrimination, and inequalities. Latina/o histories and funds of knowledge have not been historically part of the classroom curriculum. Although scholars, educators, and social movements have challenged such inequalities, they still persist. Students became objects of the educational process. New theories and educational practices, such as critical pedagogy, have helped empowered students to become aware of their situation and encouraged students to become social agents of change. Literature circles, an educational practice of critical pedagogy, enable educators to provide students with an educational experience where they become the Subjects of their own learning; thus, transforming their educational experiences. / text

This dissertation is a teacher research study of student engagement within peer-led literature circles. Collaborating with 10 seventh grade students in my writing and literature classroom who asked to read 1984 in literature circles, I explored how students engage with each and with literature within peer-led discussion circles of a relatively difficult text. Participants were taped during peer-led literature circles and interviewed about their experiences and perspectives on engagement with peers within the context of the classroom. Using Fleck's (1935) notion of thought style and thought collective I noted that participants' talk about the novel and their perspectives on the experience was shaped by their dynamic, ever changing subject positions as adolescents, students, boys and girls, and as members of the middle class. This study explores their subject positions and how they shaped student engagement as reflected their interactions and talk for the purpose of generating a theory of social learning within this particular classroom context. Implications include the role of teacher inquiry as an integral part of literacy teaching, and the use of discourse analysis as tools for teachers, teacher educators, and researchers in developing a critical perspectives on the classrooms and teaching. Additionally, the study offers a framework for supporting teachers, teacher educators, and researchers in listening to and critically assessing peer-talk within the classroom and how such knowledge can guide reflection and inform practice.

State and national standards, including the Common Core State Standards, state that students should be expected to learn to discuss and analyze texts, comprehend ideas in increasingly complex texts, and justify their thinking. Literature circles are an instructional practice suggested by many educational writers as an instructional practice that can help students meet these standards; however, research examining the impact literature circles have on students and their teacher in the classroom is needed. The purpose of this study was to investigate the implementation of literature circles in a classroom by examining how students engage in the literature circle process and the instructional practices that contribute to the level of engagement that is experienced by the students during literature. Vygotsky’s socio-cultural learning theory provides a context to understand the impact that literature circles and learning with and through others have on students. The data revealed that students engaged in the literature circle process by participating in discussions, through purposeful collaboration, and by thinking critically. The data also revealed that the level of student engagement was influenced by several practices the teacher had in place. These included (a) purposeful tasks and learning; (b) choice, (c) questioning; (d) argumentative reading and writing; and (e) role sheets. This research demonstrates the ways that using literature circles supported authentic literacy in a 5th grade classroom. Implications include instructional practices that supported engagement including purposeful tasks and learning, choice, and questioning. These instructional practices helped students learn to think critically, have evidence-based discussions, and justify their thoughts and ideas about texts. Additionally, this research has specific implications for the use of role sheets. Role sheets are frequently recommended as a practice for scaffolding student engagement, although little empirical research supports their use. Data from this study suggest that using role sheets as a conversation scaffold and as a means to train students to participate in discussion can support engagement but that discontinuing their use once students are comfortable having text-based conversations and tracking their thinking may be beneficial.

This study examined the nature of interactions that took place among eighth-graders as they participated in literature circles. The teacher/researcher organized students into literature circles based on the students' novel selection. Students completed a different role assignment each week. The role assignments included word wizard, passage picker, connector, summarizer, and question asker. As the students participated in literature circles, the teacher/researcher tape recorded their conversations and took observational field notes. Analysis of the data four weeks later showed that some students' voices were silenced and students went through the motions of completing and talking about their role assignments with little discussion and inquiry. These findings may be due to the way the role assignments were used and the role of the teacher during literature circles.