Who is doing book clubs with second graders?
I'd like to hear how you structure them.
Sharon in WI
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jan Sanders" <[email protected]>
To: "Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group"
<[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, February 14, 2009 12:50
Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] Literature Circles
Hi Elisa-
My third graders are in book clubs right now and have been for a couple of
months. I do not have them do "jobs" as I believe all students should be
doing all those things. If they are assigned a job, they tend to only focus
on that job.
Right now I have 4 book clubs going. They are formed by the students'
reading level. I bring in 4-6 chapter books at their level and they spend
some time looking them over. They decide as a group which book they want to
read and then meet with me to share their reasoning for choosing that book.
I do make sure to listen to each and every student. I make it clear that
everyone has ideas and thoughts and we can learn from everyone.
There have been occasions where they could not come to consensus in choosing
a book and that has been solved in 2 ways (by them) -one, they decided to
read the top two books -thus having a book in waiting. The second way was
they decided to break into 2 groups. I did explain to them that when you
only have two people in a group the ideas and conversations could be limited
-but, it was their choice as to how they solved the problem.
After the mini-lesson the book club members meet and decide together how
much they are going to read that day, keeping aware of the time and allowing
the last 15 minutes of the period for discussion. Then they go off and
read. When everyone is finished reading (they have signals) or when there
is only 15 minutes left in the period, they meet and discuss what they've
read. The discussions could include a response around the mini-lesson,
sharing difficult, confusing, or interesting words (they each note these on
a sticky note with a reference to page number and paragraph), analyzing the
setting and character (I do have some guiding questions to start them off),
noting and discussing the theme of the story, and for plot -story structure
(ex. Climax, problem/solution, summary of what was read today)
I remind them to link discussion from previous days with the new reading
-did the character change, does your idea of the theme still hold, or are
you thinking about it differently now?
They also incorporate a response to literature piece (like the book
because... If I could ask the author one thing... )
They are usually very successful. I start book clubs at level 22. I have
done them at level 18 and 20, but I find those students still need support
and have trouble being independent during the discussion. I often have a
teacher directed book club (sort of like guided reading) with those
students.
I have 2 guided reading groups a day and visit 1 of the 4 book clubs a day.
I have 1 hour for reading workshop.
Jan
Each day comes bearing it¹s own gifts, untie the ribbons.
-Ruth Ann Schabacker
On 2/11/09 5:13 PM, "elisa kifer" <[email protected]> wrote:
I am wanting to let my 3rd graders conduct their own literature circles.
I
have tried this in past years, but it doesn't ever seem to take. I teach
the expectations and model, model, model. Any suggestions?
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