Book Club integrates reading, writing, speaking, and listening in a variety of learning contexts. These contexts for learning -- which range from reading independently to sharing ideas with the whole class -- overlap constantly while they support and enrich one another. For the purposes of discussion, however, we divide the Book Club program into the following components.
Reading
Students begin by reading high-quality trade books that inspire them to
think, ask questions, and make connections to their own lives.
Writing
As they read, students record their responses in reading logs. Over time,
each student builds a repertoire of response types that includes a wide
variety of personal, creative, and critical responses.
Student-led Book Clubs
Groups of four to five students share ideas from their reading logs. As
students become more comfortable with the format, their conversations
flow more naturally.
Community Share
Ideally, a book club is a heterogeneously mixed group, representing
the diversity of gender, race, ethnicity, economic background, and academic
abilities in the classroom. A student's understanding of
a text is enhanced by interacting with other readers.
To learn more about any of these components, use the links in the left-hand column.