for Year 4 - 6 students
The best writers are keen readers. Studies have shown that helping students to improve their reading skills can result in a significant improvement in their essay writing.
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Literature Circle is a structured Guided Reading & Writing programme, developed with the aim of helping young learners develop mastery of writing skills through specially crafted reading strategies. The students are taught to read with purpose - they learn new vocabulary and literary devices, study grammar in context, and approach varied works of literature with an eye on the author’s unique writing style and voice.​
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Learners are engaged in critical thinking and reflection as they read, discuss and respond to literature stories. They learn to appreciate the various elements of literature, such as character development, setting and theme. As their vocabulary bank is expanded, and they learn to emulate an author's writing style, their writing skills will improve too.
Teaching Platforms & Delivery Methods
Click on the images below to read more about our methods of teaching.
Illustrated PDF stories are prepared and shared with students weekly.
Lessons are conducted once a week, 2 hours each session, online through Zoom.
A Google Classroom is set up for each Literature Circle class to share illustrated PDF story, class worksheets, reading materials and videos. Homework is submitted by the students weekly through Google Classroom for marking, grading and feedback.
Introduction of new topics is sometimes taught through songs or videos.
Students are trained to read fluently with expression and appropriate intonation during class.
Vocabulary cards are prepared weekly, highlighting the new or difficult words, its part of speech and meaning. The students are then challenged to construct a sentence using these vocabulary words.
Inductive teaching method is often used to teach grammar, whereby the students are presented with several examples that illustrate the rules of grammar in a more natural way, which makes an impression on their contextual memory, and results in easier retention of the concept taught.
Comprehension questions are set in Padlet to facilitate interactive discussion during class. These questions are designed specifically to help learners to develop a broad reading skill, such as: - understanding of explicit and implicit meaning in texts; - comment on and analyse the writing style, features of language and structure in texts; and - evaluate viewpoint, purpose, themes and ideas in texts.
Assessment of learning takes place in our weekly classes through interactive quiz set up in e-learning platform such as Gimkit. Gamification helps pique students' interest and keep them engaged during lessons, and at the same time, provides the teacher with a detailed assessment report on all the students' understanding of the topic taught.
In order to ensure that all students are given equal and fair opportunity to participate in class, we incorporate the use of Wheel of Names, a random name picker online application, to select students to participate in reading and discussion sessions.
Guided writing is provided with scaffolding instruction to ensure that all learners develop the skills to use appropriate register and language according to the genre, purpose and audience of their written assignments. Brainstorming and collaborative writing activities are carried out during the online class to help enhance the students' writing skills.
Students are kept motivated through praises for effort and excellency. Outstanding essays written by students are shared in online classes and Google Classroom, and showcased in Edenland Centre's Facebook page and Padlet.
Sow the seed of appreciation of literature ...
Books that we have read with our Literature Circle class students since May 2020 ...
Snow Queen (fairy tale)
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Firebird (traditional tale)
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Under the Light (realistic fiction)
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Black Queen (mystery novel)
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Nomads Series (informative articles)
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The Pack of Pompeii (adventure story)
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Exploring the Deep (informative text)
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The House (suspense story)
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Ultimate Takeover (comic strip)
Studs (film scripts)
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The Hidden Bestiary (poems)
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Sherlock Holmes: The Boscombe Valley Mystery (detective story)
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Tech Icon: Elon Musk (biography)
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The Wyrmstooth Crown (myth & legend)
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Elizabeth I (Tudor history)
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Finding Langston (realistic fiction)
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Plague (informative text)
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Ancient Egypt (informative text)
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Word Travellers (short story)
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Malala Yousafzai (biography)
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Strange Food (informative text)
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Introduction to Literature Circle Videos
Writers' Wall
Parent Testimonials
“Leen seems to enjoy Eric’s Lit circle class as it is an engaging and fun class to be in. I notice quite an improvement in her writing skills and at the same time, it shaped her imagination and creativity too.” – Mother of Leen, Year 5
“Ian enjoyed teacher Eric's lessons a lot and appreciates the reading opportunity during the Literature Circle class. I noticed his improvement in terms of his speech and communication with teacher and friends during the online lessons. He has stepped out of his comfort zone and learnt new writing techniques. He also learnt many difficult vocabulary words from reading the Snow Queen stories.” – Mother of Ian (Standard 4)
“This Literature Circle class is ranked the first by my son among all the online and physical classes that he has attended. He picked up a lot of new vocabulary from the class effortlessly because it is conducted in such a fun way. It also allows his creativity and imagination to flow. From my point of view, the success of the class is that Mr Eric is able to slot in the ‘academic knowledge’ in a fun way. Zi Xuan picks up the knowledge better through play than traditional drilling type of teaching.” – Mother of Zi Xuan (Year 5)
Meet our teacher
The Literature Circle programme is conducted by Mr Eric Voong, an IGCSE teacher with over 10 years of teaching experience in IGCSE school and various English Academy, including British Council.
As a teacher, I am always assuming the role of a learner. You have to learn first, before you impart and that has been my modus operandi as an educator and as a person. I am a traveller by heart and I hope to bring the world to my classroom.