Book ClubsThe Why, What, When, How, and How- to of Book

Clubs

What is a Book Club?

A Book Club is a group of people who are reading the same book and who meet together to discuss what they’ve read.

Book Clubs help students become stronger readers by combining collaborative learning with student centered inquiry. Book clubs help foster critical thinking and deeper meanings and understandings about literature.

While in book clubs, students take on roles during the meetings to facilitate discussion and comprehension.

The Purpose of Book Clubs?Students will learn how to:

Think and talk about a text in a variety of ways; Respond to and build upon each other’s thinking about a

text; Engage in behaviors that elicit and sustain meaningful

conversations with their peers; Develop a theory or set of ideas that will drive their reading

and discussions; Collect evidence to support a theory or thinking; Interact socially to share information and accomplish tasks; Discuss, define and explore unfamiliar words; Use evidence in text to verify predictions; Ask relevant and focused questions to clarify

understanding; Respond to questions and discussion with relevant and

focused comments; Identify and analyze literary elements in text

In Book Clubs, readers will…

*Learn how to study an issue in a text

*Learn more about characters by studying issues

*Make connections within and across texts

*Work together to solve problems

*Discuss, define and explore unfamiliar words

*Ask relevant and focused questions to clarify understanding

*Respond to questions and discussion with relevant and focused comments

*Paraphrase and summarize information from the text

*Identify and analyze literary elements in the text

*Predict events using previous knowledge and evidence from text

*Use text evidence to verify predictions and support answers and ideas

Behaviors of Good Book Club Readers

Good Readers … Read the assigned text before joining the conversation; Use post-it notes to remind themselves of important things

about what they’ve read; Prepare themselves for good conversations by listening to

their group members and not dominating the conversation; Enrich their conversations by making a statement that they

can support with the text; Make sure their conversations stay on track in order for new

ideas to develop; no silliness or off topic statements are wanted; be critical of ideas, not people;

Disagreement is natural and be can be healthy if handled maturely.

Behaviors of Good Book Club Readers

Members of the Book Club will: Plan how they will use their time in class and at

home to prepare for Book Club conversations.

Work at keeping their voices quiet while discussing.

Make sure everyone contributes to the conversation and let all ideas emerge.

Make sure their conversations stay on track in order for new ideas to develop.

When do Book Clubs Meet?

Clubs will meet on Monday.

Come prepared to class with reading and reading assignment role. In order to have a thoughtful, meaningful conversation, everyone has to be a team player. There is no hitchhiking allowed; everyone participates! Remember, we are all in this together. We are a community of learners.

Roles in Book Clubs Discussion Director *

Summarizer

Word Wizard

Travel Guide

Big Picture Connector

Quote Master

Investigator

Story Mapper

Character Sketcher

Passage Picker

Roles are due on Monday.Late work for roles will not be

accepted unless you are absent. This is a hard deadline.

You will receive a zero for that meeting.

1st Assigned Readings and Roles

Moon over Manifest: Pages #1-102

Navigating Early: Pages #1-102

The roles for the first book club meeting:

*Director

*Summarizer

*Word Wizard

*Character Sketcher

Organization for Book Club

Group Folder Member Sheet/Attendance (front of folder) Complete weekly

Inside of Folder Rubric Rules Discussion Starters

* Folders must be turned in at the end of class.

Rubric and grading for Book Clubs

Grading for Book Club

Teacher Conferences and observation

Peer Evaluation

Self Evaluation

Quizzes over readings

Discussion over readings; thoughtfulness displayed in conversation

Roles effectively carried out in book club; completed role and task and contributed to the discussion

Today’s Intro MeetingToday you will form your book clubs with peers who have read the

same novel. You need to decide upon the following:

Group size: Who are the members in your book club? (4 people to a group) Are the members in my group people that will

encourage me to do my best and maximize my reading potential? In other words, choose wisely.

NOTE: Mrs. Roundy has the right to change or mix up groups accordingly and as necessary to maximize learning.

Location: Where will you meet to discuss? Choose a location away from other book clubs. Feel free to move desks but please put them back after each meeting.

Roles: What roles will you be responsible for? Please note that everyone will rotate roles each week. Roles are assigned the week before each meeting.

Today’s Intro Meeting Agenda

Today’s meeting: You have EIGHT minutes to do the following:

Group: Choose 4 peers.

Location: Where to meet weekly?

Roles: What role will you be responsible for?

*Director

*Summarizer

*Word Wizard

*Character Sketcher