Literature Trading Cards

And now, we interrupt our regularly scheduled program for breaking news...

Welcome Educators!

Please don't mind the mess, sometimes crafting can be described as organised chaos. 

All joking aside, I'm here to share an important and creative addition to your regular literature circle roles. 

[Literature circles are collaborative group work in which students explore literature in new and inventive ways to facilitate critical thinking. In a literature circle, all students will have a different role.]

Roles in literature circles will vary from teacher to classroom. However, one role I'm quite fond of is the Artful Artist! The sole job of the Artful Artist is to convey the meaning of the text or story through crafty means - paint, marker, collage, glitter, crayon, pencil, feathers...the list really could go on...but be careful if you allow glitter...

But I've taken this role one step farther, and assigned the art to be created. Literature Trading Cards!

[Literature Trading Cards is a borrowed idea from Artist Trading Cards. Such cards are created and shared among students in classrooms, schools, and sometimes in communities.]

*more examples here!

Instead of having students create a work of art that tickles their fancy, they must now create a work of art that directly relates back to a book or text that is being studied and read.

Now, let me show you what I've done!

These are my 3 created cards. I chose information from three separate chapters that were specific assigned reading. As you can see, they each have their own flare! There truly is no limit to what you can do!

Now, let's get a little closer...

Here you can see a closeup of one card. The original playing card face shows through under a coat of white. Although this card was kept simple with black and white, fun little embellishments (extras) were added to give it a little more flare. 

Now let me explain...The text I read dealt with how to teach and help students learn independence in a sequence of 10 steps. To me, this meant you had to model, and when I thought of the word model, I immediately thought of 'modeling'...hence the 'VOGUE'. BUT this is simply what I pulled from the text...so...now I'm eager to see what other concepts my peers have pulled from this very same text.

Classroom Activity Sheet!

[Please note, this document was uploaded to Google Docs, download it from there to your computer and open in Microsoft Word. If you are at any point unable to access it, please comment with your email and I will share it directly that way!]

So, there you have it, a new way for the Artful Artist of your literature circles to express their textual knowledge through art! I hope you're inspired to include this role and activity in your classrooms! 

Until next time!

C.Jackson