How Can you Grade Literature Circles?

Daniels, Harvey. “How Can you Grade Literature Circles?” Voices from the Middle. Urbana: Sep 2003. Vol 11, Iss 1; pg 52

From a teacher standpoint, this article is controversial. The author, Harvey Daniels, is considered the “lit circle guru” in English classrooms. He addresses assessment in this article, and the result is unsatisfying. He says we can give students points for bringing their materials, and following directions, but the rest of the grading is basically subjective. He advises his readers to observe the students in action and give them points based on their participation in the group. Then he says teachers should create a rubric with the students’ assistance in order to grade the effectiveness of their group members. While I agree that making an assessment rubric together is a good idea, I disagree with his point that the students should come up with the criteria for grading. I don’t think many administrators would be in favor of that. In education today, at least where I am, teachers need to have a goal in mind, and a formative assessment at the completion of an assignment. Daniels also says that the best assessment is that kids come away from literature circles wanting to read more books, and we can’t really assess that, and that is entirely true. In my experience, assessment must be objective and defensible. I would not be able to grade students on their participation, because when parents and administrators challenged a grade, I wouldn’t have a proper leg to stand on. I would need to assign a project or assignment to assess the students at the end of their literature circle.

Daniels has project ideas in his books, but in his mind, adult book clubs don’t “put on puppet shows and make dioramas,” so neither should our students. I don’t feel that this article will be useful to me, because it leaves me with more questions than answers. If anything, it makes me question how I will have my students display their knowledge in a meaningful way when their lit circles are complete.