The continuation of literature circles in the fall of 2003 began by selecting and purchasing multiple copies of texts; fiction and nonfiction. A comparison of the English Language Arts Curriculum Outcomes and Literature Circles for grade five was developed and resource binders were prepared to distribute to the grade five teachers. The grade five teachers from the research school were released to attend a one day meeting with the researchers. The purpose of this meeting was to review the objectives of the project, provide a workshop on the literature circle process, review resources, develop a plan for implementation, and to peruse the books that had been purchased to date.
The grade five teachers revealed several concerns with the continuation of the literature circles strategy. First of all, they realized that the students had more experience with the process than they did. This concern was based on the students having completed a full year of practicing the process in grade four. The researchers were fully aware that these teachers would require modeling and support in order for the successful continuation of the literature circle strategy. Since the researchers' roles were defined as participants/observers, and they had the context from the grade four year, it was reasonable for them to provide the modeling and support. As a result, the researchers agreed to report to the research site to model the process for the teachers. Secondly, the teachers were concerned about meeting the grade five Curriculum Outcomes as grade five is a Provincial Assessment year. The document comparing the grade five English Language Arts Curriculum Outcomes and literature circles was presented to address this concern. The teachers were excited and pleased with the books that had been purchased. They made selections and recommendations regarding further book choices. Furthermore, the teachers acknowledged that there was a wide range of reading abilities among the students in their classrooms and were especially concerned about providing books for students with low level literacy skills. Six boys who had received extensive literacy instruction from the resource teacher in grade four during the literature circle times would now be included with the grade five classes. The grade four schedules for these boys were determined by the school and was not a decision made by the researchers. Although these boys did not participate during in-class literature circles sessions in grade four, they were included in the reading assessments and mentoring program. The researchers were very pleased to know that these students would be taking part in literature circles with the rest of their class. Finally, the teachers were concerned with losing valuable class time for the extension projects.