Many teachers use role sheets – but others find that the roles take focus and energy away from the discussion. Nearly all of the teachers we know who used roles early in the process abandoned them after awhile. By teaching strategies through focus lessons, students can choose whether to share a passage, an illustration, or a question. Students can learn collaborative and individual accountability strategies to make their discussions work without the constraints of role sheets.

However, you may feel more comfortable starting out with a limited number of roles, such as facilitator and recorder, that may be familiar to students from cooperative learning activities.   If you find that roles would be helpful for you, we recommend the clear descriptions in Harvey Daniels's book, Literature Circles: Voice and Choice in Book Clubs and Reading Groups (2001).   You will also find helpful information about roles at LiteratureCircles.com, a web site based on Harvey Daniels's book.