Literature Circles "Marking Menu" and list of Additional Assignments

This is a fabulous way to assess students while working in Literature Circles. A "Marking Menu" gives students the opportunity to "choose" the grade that they wish to receive. They are in control and they love it! Students choose their grade and then must get each item under that grade initialed by the teacher to receive that grade. Students get these items checked as they are completed. Because of this, students often adjust their goal because they have already accomplished their original goal! This menu can be used with any set of novels. I generally use 7-8 different novels centred around our classroom's current theme. This also reduces marking for the teacher at the end of the unit, as most students complete the majority of their items and get them checked as they go. This style of marking encourages mastery as students must complete each item properly and completely to get it initialed. If there are corrections to be made, they must go back and make the necessary changes in order to get it checked off of their list. This can be used with any set of Literature Circle Role Sheets that the teacher prefers and the Reader's Responses can be set up in any way that works best for the teacher.

Give it a try! Marking Menus are a really great way to mark larger projects/assignments and can easily be tailored to work with pretty much any assignment in any subject area!

Also included: List of additional assignments (these additional assignments are included as some of the items on the Marking Menu).