For me, book clubs and parent involvement are a wonderfully rich field to tap in first grade. I usually start book clubs by having parents model with their typical book club members. Typically, I make the book choice ...one that the parents have never read in a club (but one that the kids and I have shared in class...last year's parent club modeled Where the Wild Things Are ) Then a parent book club is hosted in our classroom just like at their houses. I set a table with fine china and desserts, provide a copy of the book for each parent, and the parents run with it. the kids and I fishbowl them and make observations much like Ardith Davis Cole suggests in her book (title which escapes me as I'm typing) The kids notice oodles especially about the power of shared thinking & the social learning that goes on. We have even videotaped those parent book clubs. From that initial meeting i start teaching the procedural aspect of book clubs focusing mostly on what the kids observed in the fishbowl. after we become more proficient with our own class book clubs we invite parents back to do book clubs with their kids in cooperative groups.... that perspective is wonderful..... early morning pj book clubs make it developmental as well as fun but there are more structured activities too. Even later than that the children model a book club a la first grade style for parents and the parents fishbowl us.... and they notice oodles (esp. school culture and workshop formats... but also provide rich fodder for student self and group assessment) After the parents learn from their kids how to record their thinking we usually do more clubs..some where the books are scrolled and the threads of everybody's thinking is documented on the scroll. Then we "jigsaw" pieces of the text (story structure, theme , characterization whatever the reading strategy or unit of study the class is concentrating on) and share the scrolls and the documentation. It is a great way for little kids to be empowered ... a great way to empower parents to work with their children as well. very much fun for the teacher as well... a great community builder. _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org.
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