In other words, the process for subsequent literature circles would be: discuss, read, and prepare for the next discussion. To bring closure to the group, share their learning, and advertise their book, students completed an extension project. New novels were then introduced to the class and the students completed a second round or cycle of literature circles.

Observations of the process revealed that the students took ownership of the learning process. They quickly organized themselves in their groups and engaged in the literature circles process. An examination of the students' role sheets substantiates Daniels' (1994, 2002) belief that different cognitive approaches to meaning making were promoted. Students became proficient at developing questions that were open-ended and reflected higher order thinking skills for the Discussion Director role. Some examples of Discussion Director questions include: What would you do for safety from an avalanche?; Travis' favorite place is when he's on the ice. What's your favorite place?; If your parents were divorced, who would you want to live with and why?; What would you ask the author?; What would you do if you were... (a character)?; What do you think will happen next?; Did anything in this section surprise you?; and How did you feel when you read the book?

The words selected for the Word Wizard role revealed interesting associations. The categories for word choice identified on the role sheet included: new, funny, important, strange, interesting, and hard. One of the main reasons for selecting words was due to their difficulty to read. Words such as obnoxious, humongous, photographer, Pennsylvania, magnificent, and hieroglyphics were chosen by students. Words that were unfamiliar to the students as new vocabulary were also a major reason for selection. Examples of these words included: magnolia, New York ("I think it is a city."), tumbleweed, rigoletto, hysterics, shrugged, biologists, and scummy. Words that students identified as "strange" reflect their unfamiliarity with the words and/or their meaning: sagebrush, distinctly, gesundheit, auger, although, circumstances, biologists, Oklahoma, and parallel universe. One student revealed that she found the way the author wrote the word S-N-O-W-B-A-L-L strange while another chose Big Boris because he was a strange character. Similarly, words chosen as "funny" were often selected because the sound of the words appealed to the students (jangled, chocolate chimp, splash, Booga Booga); they associated them with a funny part of the story (amazing, dark) or a personal image (I'm gonna hurl, chicken bones, invisible, monster). Furthermore, students frequently selected words because they associated them with things or people they liked. The following list provides examples of words or sentences in this category and the reasons stated for selecting them: