I'm also chiming in here because I think at the beginning of a book
study some children may need the structure of the jobs to help them focus. I
say this because I am teaching developmental reading in the community
college and I deal with adults who don't know how to discuss anything in
depth. I am initiating a book study format for our novel study this semester
and I will be assigning jobs for the group participants to help with
structure. It gives them the focus they need for building schema they lack.
I find that the 'jobs' give them direction and purpose.
Looking backwards from this position, I remember that many of my
students in the public classroom also lacked structure and schema and the
jobs helped give them a focus and foundation on which to build. My second
graders only used the jobs a couple of times before we dropped them for a
more general format applicable to any book. They did well, but I feel
confident that the initial training with jobs helped give them the schema
they needed to build better thinking and discussion skills. This is what I
am trying to do with the adults I teach now.
I tried discussion groups without a specific focus last semester and
the students did not do well. So I began giving them questions and a more
structured format for discussion groups and they quickly became more
productive. They moved easily into more in-depth thoughts and discussed at
length aspects of the book I wasn't sure they would ever understand. This
convinced me that I needed to begin with the jobs this time and move away
from them when the discussion became more natural within each group.
Unfortunately, our book is assigned to us and everyone in the department
will be reading it simultaneously.
I guess what I am trying to verbalize here is that if these adults
missed this in school, then there may be students in you room who would
benefit from jobs at the beginning of the book study due to a lack of
schema. I'm still trying to figure out how these students made it thought
school and never participated in a book discussion!
Deidra Chandler, NC
MA Early Childhood Ed
MA Reading
MultiSensory Structured Language Intervention Tutor
----- Original Message -----
From: "Maureen Morrissey" <[email protected]>
To: "'Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group'"
<[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, January 12, 2009 6:00 AM
Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] book study
I'm chiming in to say I also agree that Book Study should not be
teacher-driven. I give my fifth grade students choices of books and the
freedom to schedule their own meetings. I require a written response to
be
ready to share at the meetings, mainly so that the children will have
something to talk about. I give them many ideas (almost sentence
starters)
for their responses, and they have a rubric to guide the quality of their
responses so I don't get lame ones like: "I like this part of the book."
I
want thoughtful written responses to guide thoughtful conversations.
I do not usually attend their meetings because I am busy doing guided
reading or other teacher-driven activities; but when I can, I eavesdrop
and
I love what I hear. The children debate passionately and discuss in
lively
fashion their opinions, inferences, predictions...just like the
critical-thinkers they are.
It's very cool and it motivates all of the children to read more and with
more care. I moved from third grade, where I also ran Book Clubs, to
fifth
two years ago, and the students who were in my third grade immediately
asked
in Sept whether or not we would be doing Book Clubs. Yay!
Maureen
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