Book Club
Book Clubs.
Some could argue they’re the backbone to reading instruction in Elementary
schools. It’s a teaching instruction that many of us are familiar with and have witnessed being implemented into the classrooms. Students are in groups scattered
across the room, and each group is reading and discussing a different book. Perhaps
within each group the students have been previously assigned roles or maybe
given a list of questions to answer. The
groups might later than have a community meaning where they share aspects of
their reading and compare and contrast within the books. All of this sounds great and "we know that responding to literature through discussion, preferably in small groups, is a time-honored way to promote literary growth through reading, reflecting, and reevaluating one’s response in light of the responses of others," (Sloan, 2002, p. 28) but after reading this Weeks readings I feel as if the Book Club being described above hasn’t reached its full potential. I believe, like many things, that it has become structurally outdated and more culturally relevant research has submerged.
So
it’s time to get out with the old and in with the new
The new being a student-led book club that can empower readers and writers to critique the world around them and advocate for social change. And then allowing this student-led book club to serve as the main frame work of reading instruction (Shealy et al). The power of the book club is really being shifted into the wight of the kids. I see all the benefits of implementing Book Clubs to their full potential.
Duh Gurl, it’s a no brainer
So why aren't more teachers implementing more student-led critical thinking book clubs in their classrooms you may ask? Well I can’t help but to think of all the challenges that a new teacher, or teacher in general will have to go through in trying to get there.
Duh Gurl, it’s a no brainer
So why aren't more teachers implementing more student-led critical thinking book clubs in their classrooms you may ask? Well I can’t help but to think of all the challenges that a new teacher, or teacher in general will have to go through in trying to get there.
These specifically structured writing blocks seem to be taking schools by storm and I just fear that there won’t be much room for allowed change. Another fear is not having enough time to implement the book clubs fully. The children in the articles needed about two years to fully benefit from such a program because they needed to develop their critical questioning. A few years? That would mean the new more critical book club model would need to be adapted and implemented school wide.
What if the students cant stay on task? What if we cant develop authentic dialogue in the groups? Could you get your teaching team on board?What if the children cant find connections from the reading to their own life? Or what if we could not connect within community share?
With all these what ifs in front of me being said I am sure that there are plenty of critical thinking strategies that I can implement in both small and large ways inside my classroom that will help foster critical reading and response skills ONE STEP AT A TIME while simultaneously working towards becoming a classroom that uses critical and purposeful book club as part of its main instructional reading program. I challenge you all to come up with one short term goal that you could implement into your classroom that will help support student led book clubs.
Daily Reminders:
~How can I implement the idea of Book Club in MY classroom
~Short term goals VS. Long term goals
~How can the idea of Critical Thinkers change my lesson
I agree with you on the fact that book clubs are seen as the pinnacle of literacy and reading instruction for elementary students. I see them being used all the time in elementary classrooms, and I definitely agree with you on the fact that they are not always utilized to their full potential. When I was in school, the book clubs that I was a part of were very cut and dry, there were a list of "jobs" and you should complete them to understand the book. However, this did not help me understand the topics at hand. I solely focused on the fact that I had to fulfill a task, therefore, I did not take the time to truly understand and critique the book I was reading. I think that this is why I ultimately struggled with reading comprehension as a kid, because I was only reading to get the "answers" not to understand the text. In my future classroom, I plan to allow my students to choose their texts and have them provide a rationale for why they are choosing that book. Because I think that book clubs fail a lot of the time due to the fact that students get bored with the book due to boredom. Therefore, if I have my students write out and think critically as to why they want to explore this text, it will help them stay more engaged.
ReplyDeleteAubrey, I do think that the roles assigned in book club take away from critical discussion and critical thinking because it simply becomes answering the assigned questions or role duties. I love how you are asking the students to justify their rationale for the book of their choice. This allows children to draw connections between the books and their everyday lives, which was one of the reasoning's behind having a critical book club in the first place. I personally want to have a selection of books the children can choose from to use for their book club. I want the book club books to all have a matching theme so that we can evaluate that theme critically throughout the year and end with a community based project similar to the book club exemplified in "Critical Book Clubs-re-imagining literature reading and response".
DeleteHi Aubrey and Dani. I agree with the fact that book clubs are the best for reading instruction and literacy but I recognize that there are problems that exist, both for the students and for the teachers. Dani, I've often been overwhelmed when thinking about how to prepare a literacy program like this that goes across curriculum and with the type of structure that we are so used to, like rubrics with a quantitative right or wrong. However, I've looked up resources for providing social issue book clubs and there is so much out there. I think that having multiple genres, and levels of books make it more versatile and have the ability to connect both academically and personally with the students. I still think, for a new teacher, it's a-lot. I think that is the whole point of the Recursive Critical Book Club Cycle. You start small and build upon each time both for the students and for you as a teacher. I think that is some of what Aubrey faced in school. She was in a book club that assigned roles and we all did that last semester. I agree, you kind of worry about your individual responsibility and loose site of the breadth of the story in attempting to have your part correct. I think the whole assigning roles is a good first start for book clubs, then on another cycle you release some of the responsibility and freedom to the club. I really liked the idea's of a student blog and video recorded news stories. It is so creative. I believe that students would take ownership of what they know in those scenarios. I do think that scaffolding in the skills that it takes to develop a classroom culture that is sophisticated enough to discuss literature critically takes time, repetition and constant monitoring. All this to say, I think that teachers are dragging their feet because they are afraid of the lack of checks and balances that they are used to. I also think that although it may be more work in the front end, once you've done this a few times, you would get better at it. I do think the benefits of a book club that empowers readers and writers to critique the world around them is foundational to empowering the next generation to advocate for change, more so than anything else we do in a classroom. Finally, one of the underlying notions we've been taught throughout our education has been, "we have to know our community". The book club plan could be an extension to what we know about our students, families and the community they live. Having the freedom to find a social issue that may reflect the lives of the students we teach not only makes them better critical thinkers, it shows them that we care about them.
ReplyDeleteDee,
DeleteYesss, I love the idea of scaffolding the book clubs basically. I believe that this will be the direction I take with them in my classroom. I will start out with the clubs having more structure and then give the students more freedom as we go and put the club in their hands. I also loved the idea of blogging the book clubs because its definitely a way for students to be creative, I would just make sure that this option would be accessible for ALL my students before implementing that.
Hi Dani!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post and I do 100% agree with you that book clubs are more often than not utilized to their full potential. I remember doing multiple book clubs and literacy circle throughout school that did not benefit me in any way. As you and Aubrey mentioned, they are very cut and dry. Book clubs are always a good way to present lessons to students and can be used all the time. I recall that last year in spring semester we all were part of a book club. We were assigned different tasks and while I did read the book, I felt as if I was not able to fully dive into the reading and think critically because we were just trying to do a task for points. While there are many great things we can do with book clubs, like the article "Critical Book Clubs: Reimagining Literature Reading and Response." suggests, realistically like you mentioned time is the issue in our case. I like that you mentioned this because I feel as if a lot of times there are these great ideas to advance learning but it all comes down to the issue of time. The structure of school itself may need to be reevaluated to give teachers and administrators a look into what is important in a school day and how we can efficiently teach to benefit our students.
My short term goal to implement into my classroom to encourage book clubs would be to establish community in the classroom. This is a component of Book Club Discussion Groups in the article "Book Club: An alternative framework for reading instruction.". I really like this component and I believe starting out with developing community at the beginning of the year will create for a safe space for students. While there will and should always be a development of community in my classroom I believe the most important place to start would be at the beginning of the year. I was the shy student and never felt comfortable sharing my thoughts or ideas with the rest of the class and building that trust for students at the beginning of the year is important. This affects students learning and that shouldn't be a worry for students which is why it should be established right off the bat.
Maddy,
DeleteI love the idea of community as a structured part of my classrooms day. I agree that having this in the very beginning will be the best when creating a safe and relationship-based classroom. Having community in place before the Book club starts will be beneficial because they would already understand the structure and could dive deeper into the topics based on their lives and the lives of their friends and peers because of their previously built relationships.
Growing up I feel like book clubs didn't do much for me and I was just given a job and I did it and that was it. I never did feel like their reached their full potential like you said. Students need to feel like what they are reading and what they are taking away is benefiting them. I feel like many teachers don't want to go through all the work that it takes to changing up the curriculum like you said. They have so many other parts of the day they need to fit in and wanting to do the book club well takes time.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to implementing book club in my classroom, I want to make it so it is beneficial and critique what they are reading. My short term goal with book clubs is that my students will learn to read and question what they are reading. My long term goal is that they because of book clubs they can take what they learn from my class and critique the world around them.
I love your long term goal Abby! I love the idea of connecting it to the real world as much as possible.Not only is that amazing that these students would be critical thinkers by the end of it but we as a teacher can also answer the dreaded "when will we use this in real life" phrase.
DeleteThe earliest memory I have of doing a book club was in the third grade. Every single year we would do the same type of book clubs, regardless of the type of book or teacher. We were assigned specific roles to complete as we read along, as you mentioned. I can remember noticing the impact my focused attention on the assigned roles had on my comprehension of the text during the group share times. I would feel so overwhelmed staring at my vocabulary list while my peers talked about their text connections and other roles. While many of them were able to complete their roles while comprehending the text, I still believe that there was a number of us that could not. This serves as additional evidence for what the author states in the "Alternative Framework for Reading Instruction" reading from this week. While the standard format of book clubs may still benefit some students, it is definitely outdated and needs revamped.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of taking the outdated version of book clubs and transitioning them into something that places more emphasis on critical thinking. I also agree with Dee when she says that having the freedom to select a book on a topic that resonates with our students is another way we can show them we care about them. The dialogue about the books will be relevant to their own lives, which only gives more opportunity for them to incorporate prior knowledge and add more depth to their conversations. While it may be true that this may need to be incorporated school-wide, what harm could it do to stress the importance of critical thinking skills to our students in all grades?
Stephanie,
DeleteYou point out a wonderful point about how some students would continue on after their reading and others wouldn’t continue because they didn’t comprehend as much. Hopefully with the updated book club they would be able to comprehend more because they would be discussing the book in more depth.
I agree with Abby, that when I was growing up Book clubs were just a way to talk and goof off in class. I never gained anything from them, and I want to be able to, as a teacher, make these more desirable to my students in a way they can really benefit from it. When I was at Eastbrook I witnessed many students doing book buddies, where the 3rd graders would go to a kindergarten classroom and they would read to the kindergartens and help them with small words, as well as the 5th graders to a 2nd grade classroom. I feel like this is new and the older kids going in are learning by the constant reading to younger kids and the younger kids are growing from being read to and having that one on one help that a teacher can not provide to every student all at once. I hope this helps!
ReplyDeleteYes I saw that before as well! I love the buddy reading programs and would love to work at a school that has that implemented! Or simply get with another teacher and implement that as well!
DeleteI agree with you 100% Dani! I think that if book clubs are going to continue to be used, we as future educators have to think about the proper way to utilize book clubs like with scaffolding (as Dee pointed out). I remember the first "book club" I was in and I didn't understand the purpose of the book club because my peers and I never really discussed the book together as peers, it was always a teacher-led activity that brought out the different levels of readers by having us read out loud or by asking us questions that we didn't understand how to answer. I also think that book clubs themselves get an interesting reputation based on the media. If you watch any movie that showcases a book club, the book club is normally a group of middle to high-class, white women sitting in lounge chairs, drinking champagne and eating finger sandwiches. These depictions are often shown to older grade level students within movies and subconsciously (or consciously) could impact how students of other race, ethnic backgrounds, class, etc. perceive book clubs as they outgrow elementary age practices.
ReplyDeleteI love how you pointed out that most media shows book clubs being portrayed by upper class white women who love wine. I agree with this. I think that is an important idea to talk about within your class and debunk this stereotype.
DeleteDani,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that Book clubs are important, and can be a great resourceful tool when being a critical thinker and learner. I have actually seen a lot of teachers implementing book clubs into their classrooms, but I'm not sure how culturally relevant and critically they are. I've seen students with a lot of older books such as ones about Rosa Parks, MLK, To kill a mockingbird, etc - even in 5th grade classrooms right now. I do believe it is important to learn about the activist of the past, but I think we can also really dig deep into finding materials that reflect what is going on right now, today, in this moment. I think students will be able to connect to it more, as it pertains to their lives in this moment, then you can bring up activist who were similar years ago. Even more so, the activist who were not in the direct spotlight, the ones who were quietly serving justice on the sidelines. Implementation of book clubs can be so helpful for students to think critically, but it has to be intentional. We don't want to use the exact same books we did the year before, because your kids change, their interests change. We don't want to ask the same questions, because again, things are constantly changing. There is a way that we can teach history and connect with our current lives, and that is what is going to allow students to practice thinking critically. When it relates to you personally, you typically have a better understanding, and then knowledge can be built on top of that.
A short term goal that I would like to implement in my future classroom is making sure that my materials are culturally relevant. Especially books, but all my materials in general. Saying this sounds so "Duh girl, it's a no brainer" but I really do want to push myself to be looking for updated materials, critical literacy books, and implementing them into my classroom (knowing that the research behind them has been effective in a positive manner). Reading your blog has made me realize how crucial it is that we as teachers stay up to date with what is happening, the best ways to educate, and the best ways to teach our students to be critics of the world. I will definitely be thinking about this when I start my teaching!
Jazzy,
DeleteI love how you are talking about staying relevant. I do think that there is a time and place for classic books but there are so many wonderful new books and diverse books that we can add into our classroom. I agree that’s it’s so important as teachers to stay updated on our books and lessons that’s a great short term goal!
Loved your post! I feel like book clubs aren't doing much when everything is just being given and students are just putting down random answers to get their work done. I don't remember book clubs being beneficial to me in school and I always attached a negative connotation with them because it was just another pointless thing we did in class that I just quickly jotted down an answer for to get it done. It wasn't something that actually helped with my ability to read and comprehend what I'm reading or talk critically with my group. Why should students need a list of questions to answers when there is so much more learning that can come from students asking their own questions and discussing their thoughts on the book. I feel like some teachers use Book Clubs as a way to just keep their students busy rather than a way to help them grow as readers and critical thinkers. A short term goal I have is being able to model what a book club should look like and sound like so they can have something to build from. The idea of a book club is so important and can be SO beneficial in classrooms, but the way they're being done in classrooms today needs a drastic change and more of a focus on thinking critically rather than just getting the work done.
ReplyDeleteAlexis,
DeleteI love your short term goal about modeling what a book club should sound like and look like. I think creating an anchor chart of that and having it on the wall throughout the year would be soooooo Beneficial to students. Definitely stealing that idea!
While I do think book clubs now can still be a great resource for many things such as practicing reading comprehention by asking critical questions and can also be used to introduce social justice issues, there is always room for improvement. I love the idea of giving the kids the power and having them be the leaders for book club. While it may take a while to get started, it would be worth the effort and fight in order to give this opportunity to the students. There is a lot of value to having the students learn how to facilitate a discussion and teaching the class to think critically. If they can do this during book club, they will learn to do it in other aspects as well. Critical thinking is an important tool to have in many aspects of life, especially in terms of social justice issues. I love that you challenge the idea that this may be hard to implement for first year teachers but I don't think it would be impossible if you have a strong support team to help you and your students along the way. I would love to hear some ways you think this could be implemented in smaller ways and gradually overtime! This would help to introduce this new idea to the students and to see how they response.
ReplyDeleteAlaina,
DeleteYes I think it is only fair to say that it will be hard for a first year teacher but that’s doesn’t mean impossible. I love how you mentioned that if they can be leaders and think critically in a book club they can also do that in other aspects of their life because that’s the main purpose
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ReplyDelete