Student Book Clubs
I recently had the pleasure of being part of a book club experience for parents and students who are headed into 3rd grade. The teacher assigned a text for the summer and wanted the readings to be done with the parents as part of their summer learning. We met at a lovely home last week to debrief the text and the experience. The teacher of the class led the student discussion of the text (The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary) in one room. I led a discussion with parents to get feedback on the readings and to provide support related to comprehension in a different room. Then we all had snacks including brownies and ice cream!
Since it is July and the kids were out of school, they were extremely excited to see their 2nd grade teacher who has the luxury of “looping” with them to 3rd grade. It was a perfect opportunity to have students read, give parents a clear role to participate, and get together in the middle of the summer. The students were precious giving each other hugs as one friendly face came in the door after another.
If you are tired of reading for anything other than the LOVE of reading, I highly suggest one of these book clubs. It was voluntary, a journal was suggested but not graded, and well worth the time. The feedback from the students and parents was overwhelmingly positive despite a few who didn’t really like the text. Parents and kids taking time to just sit and talk about text is one powerful and effective way to not only increase comprehension, but also a love of reading for pleasure. The latter part cannot be emphasized enough!
Tips for Summer Book Clubs (or across the school year)
1. Plan ahead. Choose the book and make sure it is available to everyone. If you are feeling wild…choose an article or picture book with a deeper meaning.
2. Choose a date and location for everyone to come together. Our club was planning to meet at Chick-fil-A and a generous parent opened her home. Locations can include bookstores, libraries, restaurants, churches, etc. Anywhere people can gather and talk should work.
3. Arrange the discussions so everyone is in a circle or at least facing other people. Eye contact is key.
4. Have some guiding questions that are specific to the plot (How did Ralph S. Mouse change from the beginning to the end of the text?) and some wide open questions (What did you think of how the author ended the story? What are you left wondering?)
5. Set a small goal for discussion and build on it. Our goal was to have the students talk for about 20 minutes on this one. They went over their time AND talked longer than the parents!
Our club started at 7:00pm and was completely over by 8:30 that night. What better way to spend an hour and a half of my time?!?