Literature Circle

I have a meeting with Dr Pam Macintyre and Dr Ric Canale. Pam introduced the concept of Literature Circle whereby students takes on different roles during the study of literature. Some of the roles are Summarizer, Discussion Director, Investigator, Illustrator, Connector, Travel Tracer and/or Vocabulary Enricher.

I see that as Literature Circle provides a further "framing distance" in terms of study a work compared to using role play simulations (e.g. those Fablusi driven role play, such as The Scarlet Letter Simulation: An Examination of People and Times. In role play simulation, students play immersive roles (as character of the work) and have the freedom to develop the character and the direction the story could have developed. This enables students to really understand the character, the context surrounding the story and develop empathy and emotional links to the issues. In literature circle, students take a more "distance" / outside view into the story.

The two approaches have different application and merits. It depends on what is the learning objectives of your course. I do believe that role play simulation would give the learners much more fun in studying literature.