The effect of literature circle on the reading skills of 5th grade students

It is aimed to analyzed the effect of literature circle method on the reading skills of 5th grade students in this study. The study group of the research consists of the 5th grade students of Bolu Doğa Private Secondary School in Bolu province. This group consists of 20 people. A reading comprehension test which consists of 20 questions is prepared in order to determine the effect of literature circle technique on the students' reading skills. In the reading comprehension test, a text is given to the students and the questions are asked about this text. This test is applied twice as before and after the application. In addition to the reading comprehension test, an interview form consists of 3 questions is prepared to get the students' views on the literature circle technique. As a result of statistical analysis to determine whether there is a difference between pre-test and post-test scores according to question groups in reading comprehension achievement test, it is determined that literature circle application provides meaningful improvement in comprehension and analysis of text [t(19) = -3.115, p = 0.006] and finding correct subject and main idea [t(19) = -3.269, p = 0.004]. In addition, there was no significant change in students' vocabulary [t (19) = .353, p = 0.728].When the answers of the students to the the first question of "What are your favorite aspects of literature circle?" are evaluated, it can be said that in general literature circle gives students self confidence, contributes to the learning of new words, develops understanding of the paragraph, it is an entertaining method, it allows to analyse the text deeply, it is a student-centered method and increases cooperation in the classroom. When the answers of the third question of "What are the aspects you don't like about the activities of literature circle? What do you recommend to get it better?" are evaluated, it is seen that there is not any aspect that the majority of the students do not like about the literature circle. The majority of the students state that more students should participate in the activities in order to make these activities better, they expressed that there are problems about drawing. Keywords: Literature circle, reading, reading comprehension and habit.