Literature Circles Program for Middle School Students Operational Case Study: Focusing on the influence on literary interpretation

Objectives The purpose of this study is to determine the impact on literary interpretation after implementing a literature circles program for middle school students. Methods For this purpose, eight students (five males and three females) in the first and second grades of a middle school in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, Korea, participated in 10 sessions of literature circles activities. The participants' responses at each stage of the literature circles program were analysed through a combination of transcripts, activity products, and observation journals. Results Through the literature circles program, participants deepened their understanding of the works through active interaction with community members. Participants actively shared their responses to the literature, and in the process of understanding the literature, collaborative discourse was used to construct shared meaning, and interpretation was enriched through interaction. Sharing personal interpretive responses led to emotional expression and generalisation of empathy through receptive attitudes, while active interaction through interpretive questions led to deeper interpretation. Conclusions Literature circles program have shown that active interaction, which increases voluntary participation and deepens understanding of literary works, is conducive to improving literary interpretation skills. They also show that interaction enables an active and engaged literary experience through collaborative meaning making and enriched understanding of texts. Literary interpretation through literature circles proposes a new approach to traditional literary education and social reading of literature, which is expected to contribute to strengthening literary education and the social role of literature by enabling a more active and in-depth understanding of literary works. It is also hoped that literature circles will be activated through active discourse in both in-school and out-of-school curricula.