Innovation ShowcaseAmanda Rizer & Jodi Little

Leveled Texts within a Class

What’s so innovative about… Literature Circles?

They can be innovative for students who have never been exposed to collaborative learning. I’ve been guilty of maintaining a teacher-

centered classroom with academic and inclusion classes.

It’s hard to let go of “control” and let students “control” their education, especially when the spectrum of abilities is exceptionally broad.

This particular class contains: OCS students, students with physical

and mental disabilities, and behavioral disabilities.

Due to recent changes to The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), classes of this nature are no longer unique.

To meet the needs and abilities of several students, we:

Accessed AIMSweb data for lexile scores,

Provided students with a selection of books from which they could chose,

Modified literature circles, where groups meet and collaborate one at a time in a different location while the rest of the class read their novels and worked on their role work in class.

We came up with three levels: Level I: read Monster by Walter Dean

Myers

Level II: read Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Level III: read A Separate Peace by John Knowles

Clip of Monster

Monster, Summarizer

Monster, Discussion Leader

Speak, clip

Speak, Vocabulary Wizard

Speak, Discussion Leader

Speak, Summarizer

A Separate Peace clip

A Separate Peace, Summarizer

A Separate Peace, Vocabulary Wizard