August 3, 2007
We have updated the bibliography of research and best practice references related to literature circles.

August 1, 2007
The Literature Circles Resource Center is pleased to promote an exciting series of professional development workshops sponsored by the Seattle Reading Council for 2007-2008. "Teachers as Writers: Exploring Writing from the Inside Out" features noted essayist, poet, author, and teacher Dr. Frances McCue. Frances is the former Artistic Director of Richard Hugo House, a community writing center in Seattle. She also teaches a course in the College of Education at Seattle University, LITC 522 Seminar in Writing Instruction. See the Seattle Reading Council web site for more information on this powerful and engaging professional development series.

April 25, 2006
Katherine Schlick Noe, webmaster of the Literature Circles Resource Center, organized a symposium at the International Reading Association Annual Convention in Chicago, Illinois. The session, "Literature Circles in Middle School: Changing the World One Conversation at a Time," was presented on May 3, 2006. The symposium handout is available here: http://www.litcircles.org/ira06.html.

April 1, 2006
We are happy to announce the Seattle Reading Council's spring conference, "Let's Talk About It: Improving Literacy through Professional Study," taking place on May 19-20, 2006 on the Seattle University campus. For more information, check out the web site: http://www.seattlereading.org/SRC.html.

December 18, 2005
The Literature Circles Resource Center has moved to a new address: http://www.litcircles.org. The site remains a professional service of Katherine Schlick Noe of the College of Education at Seattle University. The new URL, however, requires much less typing and will allow the site to grow and change more easily.

December 16, 2005
Coming January 13 - 16, 2006: Heinemann Workshops presents "Literature Circles: Building Better Student Book Clubs K-12" with Harvey Daniels, Katherine Schlick Noe, Nancy Steineke, and Janine A. King in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

January 29, 2005
Katherine Schlick Noe, webmaster of the Literature Circles Resource Center, organized a symposium at the International Reading Association Annual Convention in San Antonio, Texas. The session, "Literature Circles and Middle School: Living in This World With Courage and Hope," features Janine A. King, co-author of Literature Circles in Middle School, and noted author Deborah Ellis (The Heaven Shop, The Breadwinner, Parvana's Journey) and illustrator Yuyi Morales (Harvesting Hope: The Story of Cesar Chavez). Date/time: Tuesday, May 3, 2:00 - 4:45 p.m. in the convention center.
Download handout as pdf file

January 22, 2005
Themed Literature Units: Steps have been added to help you guide students to develop their conceptual understanding of a theme (e.g., persevering despite obstacles, taking action to care for others, working for justice) in literature circles. See "Steps in the Concept Development Process."

Directions for three extension projects have been expanded to provide more detail for teaching the Story Quilt, Main Idea Belt, and Literary Weaving projects.

January 20, 2005
Two new resources have been added to the Teacher Resources page:

Literature Circles Extension Projects, a collaborative project of Susan Silverman, a retired teacher from Comsewogue School District, Port Jefferson Station, New York. Susan now works as an independent educational consultant and adjunct professor at the New York Institute of Technology. Susan's collaborative Internet project showcases Literature Circle Extension Projects created by students of all ages.  It's an opportunity for students to create for an authentic audience and for educators to view best practices. This site is currently being developed, and extension projects from all grades will be added to the "Student Showcase" section.

Literature circles website developed by Shaun Else, a Grade 5 teacher at Maple Grove Primary School in Oakville, Ontario. Shaun has built an extensive cache of resources for his students and their families, as well as for other teachers.

January 8, 2005
Two new web sites for literature circles have been added to Teacher Resources: ReadWriteThink (International Reading Association and National Council of Teachers of English) offers a wealth of great resources, including literature circles. Literacy Matters (Education Development Center) is another powerful site aimed at middle and high school literacy.

New resources for great books for middle and high school literature circles have been added to Good Books for Literature Circles.

January 1, 2005
Bibliography of the research and best practice foundation for literature circles has been added to the web site. Click on "Research on Literature Circles."

October 7 , 2004
Coming January 15 - 17, 2005: Heinemann Workshops presents "Literature Circles: Building Better Book Clubs K-12" with Harvey Daniels, Katherine Schlick Noe, Nancy Steineke, and Janine A. King in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

September 6, 2004
You can now download and print a copy of a book-selection ballot (pdf file) from the Literature Circles Resource Guide by Bonnie Campbell Hill, Katherine L. Schlick Noe, and Nancy J. Johnson.

May 1 , 2004
The handout, "Literature Circles and the Middle School Reader" from the Middle School Special Interest Group session at the International Reading Association 2004 Annual Convention is now available. Presenters were Katherine L. Schlick Noe, Seattle University; and Janine A. King, Brighton School in Lynnwood, Washington.

December 2, 2003
Read Cara Bafile's interview with Katherine Schlick Noe, webmaster of the Literature Circles Resource Center, on response journals in literature circles on the Education World web site: "Reading Response Journals: Writing After Reading is Revealing!"

October 14 , 2003
Reorganization of Making Discussions Work page, including basic considerations for discussions and tips for making discussions run more smoothly.

September 19, 2003
New material added to the Discussion section, Preparing for Discussion. I have included new forms that you can download as pdf files: Bookmarks, Golden Lines, Interesting Words, and Discussion Logs. You need a free copy of Adobe Reader to view these forms.

September 10 , 2003
Reorganization of Extension Projects with a new section on Planning Extension Projects. This section offers guidelines for teachers as you teach the process of extension projects, as well as for students as they plan their projects. Includes downloadable forms for planning extension projects.

September 8 , 2003
New downloadable and printable forms are now available to help you evaluate extension projects (Extension Projects > Evaluating Projects > Extension Project Evaluation Forms). These forms are adapted from the Literature Circles Resource Guide © 2001by Christopher-Gordon Publishers, Inc. and used by permission. You may download the forms on this site for non-commercial, classroom use.

July 21, 2003
New searchable database of books in Spanish, the Barahona Center for the Study of Books in Spanish was added to the "Book List" page (Choosing Books > Book Lists).

September 1, 2002
New book published in 2003: Literature Circles in Middle School: One Teacher's Journey by Bonnie Campbell Hill, Katherine L. Schlick Noe, and Janine A. King. This book describes literature circles in Janine King's sixth, seventh, and eighth grade classes. Includes extensive bibliography of young adult literature organized by themes. Comes with CD-ROM with a searchable database of over 800 high quality books for adolescents. For more information, contact Christopher-Gordon Publishers, Inc (cgpublish@aol.com)

January 21, 2002
Teacher Resources for Literature Circles: Additional web site for more information on literature circles.  4th/5th grade teacher Laura Candler has developed an extensive and useful site describing how she uses literature circles in her intermediate classroom.  She includes many forms and guidelines that you can download, as well as book suggestions for intermediate students.

December 30, 2001
Extension Projects:  New section -- "Evaluating Projects" containing forms to use as you guide students to self-reflect on their extension projects, and for your use as you evaluate the extension projects.  Forms can be downloaded as "pdf" files using Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Teacher Resources for Literature Circles:  Added list of professional books on literature circles with links to web sites for more information.
Book Lists:  Added links to three searchable book databases: The Database of Award-Winning Children's Literature, the Children's Picture Book Database at Miami University, and the Canadian Children's Literature Database.

December 3, 2001
New web site link in Teacher Resources for Literature Circles:  Discussion Groups/Literature Circles  Guidelines from the Montgomery County (Maryland) Public Schools.

March 4, 2001
Themed Literature Units:  New section on organizing literature circles around themes (e.g., Persevering Despite Obstacles, Exploring the Value of Friendship, Finding the Courage to Help Others)

December 20, 2000
Literature Circles Resource Guide:  New resources for literature circles from the authors of Literature Circles and Response and Getting Started with Literature Circles.  Book includes teacher guidelines and reproducible forms; CD-ROM includes forms formatted for Mac and PC, plus 1800-book database of literature searchable by theme, genre, time period.
New Book Lists:  Sample book lists from the Literature  Circles Resource Guide.
Sample Forms for Discussion:  Sample forms for discussion from the Literature Circles Resource  Guide.

Updated August 23, 2000
Site Map:  Quick overview of the LCRC web site.
Extension Projects:  This section is now complete -- information on planning and completing extension projects with examples.
Sample Forms and Book Lists from the Literature Circles Resource Guide (Hill, Schlick Noe & Johnson, 2000).
"Literature Circles Build Excitement for Books":  Article on literature circles by Mary Daniels Brown published on Education World web site.