English News

News from English: Literature Circles

In term four, Year 9 students and 8B students traditionally participate in Literature Circles.  This process allows them to work together on a text, taking specific roles and engaging in discussions.  This year, the process started in remote learning and teachers worked hard to ensure that the students didn’t miss the opportunity to work in this way.  They made adjustments that allowed students to work in their groups even though they could not, initially, be physically together. Students had shared Google docs and designated Google Classrooms for small group discussions so that they could develop their understanding of the texts and respond to them.  Year 9 students were introduced to a range of short texts and 8B students read novels they had selected together. 

This work has continued since the return to onsite learning so fortunately students have now been able to collaborate in person.  This process has been enriching in many ways, as can be seen in the comments below.  We have also included some photos of 8B students, who made presentations to the class at the end of their Literature Circles experience. 

Thank you to the teachers and well done to the students, who have engaged so positively in Literature Circles.

Cristina Presa

Head of English and EAL

Comments from students

I did enjoy the task; I enjoyed the teamwork and communication needed for the task. I liked that we all had roles and needed to put in our effort as a team. It was a good way to come back to school and be able to interact with others in class. Overall, it was a really good task.  It helped with how we approached others. And how we organised ourselves.

Esther Parnaby de Nicolas 9A

It was rewarding to achieve my own goals and work and I found working in a group beneficial as we were able to discuss different perspectives.

David Loven 9A

I enjoyed Literature Circles. I liked how we could communicate with each other and share our ideas about the story and the work. It helped me think outside the box more.

Natasha Vakhariya 9A

I really enjoyed literature circles and would love to do it again. Discussing the stories with my group was super fun and the work assigned to us wasn’t too difficult either, making these activities very enjoyable.

Jade Davis 9A

During literature circles, I felt in charge of my learning. There were moments where I could be the leader and moments where I was being led by my teammates. I believe my team did a great job at working as a community and lifting each other up.

Kayla Fox 9A

I enjoyed working with different people with various perspectives and aimed to achieve the same goal together every week.  The stories were very interesting.

Naomi Wong 9A

I enjoyed the independence and flexible working times we got during lit circles. I think the most important thing I got out of it was the skill of working with others to achieve a goal.

Kreepa Bhusal 9A

Literature Circles was an enjoyable task. Whilst learning about different stories, I enhanced my communication skills and learnt about my fellow classmates more. Even though there were differences in a group, we took advantage of it and made good use of it.

Candice Roxas 9A

I believe that the Literature circles were such a fun and different task to do in English this year! Not only did we have the chance to choose from a wide range of poems and analyse them but we also got to work as a team and allow ourselves to work with the perspectives of others. I enjoyed it because I was exposed to a wide range of poetic styles and devices that expanded my vocabulary and knowledge.

Yvette Lipovetsky 9C

I enjoyed doing the literature circles because I was able to express my imagination with my group and bounce ideas off each other. When we first started writing our analysis for our poems, it was so much more fun when working in a group. You pay so much more attention to detail when other people are working with you. Each poem was really interesting to discuss, learn and write about which made the task more enjoyable. Overall, I really enjoyed this Lit Circle activity.

Maddie Zuker 9C

I enjoyed the entire literature circle task. Understanding different forms of poetry and then being able to learn to link them to the same theme was very interesting. Some of the poems took a while to understand but once finding the meaning behind it, it was really fascinating to put together. 

I also think it was really great to have a task where we worked in a group and with the input of others. Especially on a task like this which required different interpretations of different people to find the grounded poem meaning. Poems are often a thing that takes time, discussions, different perspectives to properly understand. 

Ella Carmeli-Wolski 9C