Building on Sierra High School’s commitment to literacy, the Literature Circles are a culminating yearly event where students demonstrate their autonomous learning and developing literacy skills. As a final project in the English classes, students choose novels of their own, set a reading pace with their peer group, conduct weekly conversations around their novels, demonstrate their literacy skills in fishbowl assessments and participate in final presentations where they act as docents and present their novels to the public. The purpose of this grant is to supplement the novel sets that are needed to support this project. This Literature Circle project directly supports Sierra High School’s literacy plan by building on students’ skills as they manage their own interactions and learning with novels of their choice and prepare to present their knowledge to the school community and the public. Additionally, the Literature Circle project is in direct alignment with the District's mandate for more authentic student speaking and listening tasks.
All students enrolled in English during the school year of 2024-25 will benefit from the Literature Circle project and the grant’s support of the novel sets. Since English courses at Sierra High School are heterogenous, mixed grade level classes, the diverse population of the school site is represented. Specifically, Sierra High’s special education and English language learners directly benefit from the weekly conversations and presentation expectations. In addition, the need for credit recovery and credit acceleration from the student population assures that at least 90% of students’ enrolled in Sierra High are enrolled in an English course.
The success of the program is measured by the students' interaction with their novels, their peers and their ability to be successful docents at the public presentations. Because students are responsible for setting how many pages they will read weekly in their groups, which roles they will prepare for weekly conversations and for developing a presentation the whole group will oversee during the final presentation, students become more independent readers and talkers. Most importantly, they report that they like reading.
The Literature Circles project at Sierra High has been a reoccurring unit now for several years. Students who attend Sierra High for multiple years now clearly expect that they will be reading and speaking independently about things they read in their classes. This upholds Sierra High’s ongoing commitment to build student literacy, the district's mandate of more speaking and listening, and strengthens student educational experiences across the curriculum.
The Literature Circle project takes place during the last 9 weeks of the school year. Students select novels and peer groups they will read with; they create a weekly calendar of how many pages they must read; they assign weekly roles for supporting their conversations around the novels ( for example: the discussion director, the connector, the illustrator); they prepare for a fishbowl assessment where they conduct a conversation in front of all of their peers; and they prepare a visual representation of their novel using a tri fold presentation board where they will act as a docent with the public during the final exhibit.
Our English courses span all grade levels, so all students enrolled in English have access to these novel sets and the Literature Circle project.
We utilize local bookstores in Truckee and Reno, on -line distributors such as Amazon Books and Books A Million and low cost publishers such as Dover Thrift Editions as vendors to help keep our cost low.
Some limited Title I sources for English Language books may be available, but because titles are often off the recommended reading lists, English department funds may not be readily available.