Skip to main content

Book Clubs



One of the things that I do miss about teaching is the book clubs. Book clubs were something I started in probably my fourth year of teaching. And was one of my best ideas, ever.

I divided the kids up into groups more or less by reading ability and assigned each group a book (that I had to buy with my own money, of course). The advanced readers would get something like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or The Twits (Roald Dahl is a great favorite with third grade boys who are reading above grade level). The lower readers would get something like the Horrible Harry series, because, although they are easier reading, they still have chapters, and that's a source of pride with third graders... chapter books.

One kid would be the facilitator for the day and they would go around and each read one page out loud. If none of the kids in the group knew a word, they could ask me. I took turns sitting in on the different groups. When they finished a chapter, the facilitator for the day would ask a couple of questions that were supposed to be higher-level questions about the character's motivation or something but were often things like "Where were they?" It depended on the child.

The kids actually did quite well with these. I didn't do it so much my last year - mostly because I was so tired and book clubs are actually very high-energy for the teacher. But they loved it. Sometimes the kids would do a presentation at the end of a book - they would present a poster to the class which told the title, author, setting, characters, and basic plot. Then they would explain if they recommended the book or not and why. It really got them interested in reading and I wish I hadn't been too tired to keep it up.

It is really amazing how long it takes to get over being THAT tired. I'm still finding myself needing way more sleep than is normal and wearing out really easy. I think one day I'll be rested again... I hope. School apparently depleted more of my energy than I thought.





Labels:

Comments

House Dreams said…
Did you read "Zippy"?
The author is Haven Kimmel,
she was Zippy.

Then her mom gets some time in
"She Got Up Off the Couch".
My favorite was the first.

What about "Color" by Victoria Finlay. The painter inside will thank you.

Some old Dads read
"Coal" and
"Salt"
and liked them a lot.

I liked "Seabiscuit"
'An American Legend'
by Laura Hildebrand.

"Mending" should have been good,
but it was too much drama,
not enough stitching.

I like one word titles, I guess.
10:05 PM
Anonymous said…
Jon Katz wrote about dogs:

A Good Dog and
The Dogs of Bedlam Farm
are quite enlightening tomes.

Those are working dogs. They rarely lie around snoozing, except when absolutely exhausted, which I assume is the context of your featured dog in the photo.
2:54 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Loss

  (I have been putting off finishing this blog post for months. You'll see why)  Today, I was cleaning a bookshelf and I found the journal from one of my third-grade students, who I call Fred in my book , in 2001. I still had it because he didn't come to the last day of school to get his stuff this year and I guess it got put in a pile and somehow I've kept it with me.  He didn't come to the last day of school, probably because his family was a mess: dad in prison, mom in an abusive relationship, all the kids (understandably) acting out violently. Fred was expelled from our school in second grade for hitting a teacher. Then he was expelled from the other school, I don't know why, at the end of second grade. He came back on the condition from the administration that he be in my class because I had him as a student in first grade and he listened to me and worked well with me.  We had a really good relationship, although Fred was definitely not easy to have in class....
Post a Comment
Read more

A New Prison, Part Two

  Second very long part of the prison visit report.   After we got all the paperwork filled out and went through the metal detector, we got visitation slips with the name of the inmate, and made our way over to the other building for visitation. This is not maximum security so thankfully you can just sit next to the inmates, and not be separated by glass or have to use a telephone to talk.    First, you get a gate unlocked and go into a holding pen that is of course in direct sunlight (or rain if it's that season) and surrounded by fences topped with razor wire. You wait there until the gate at the other end is unlocked. This holding pen was a little bigger and less claustrophobic than the other prison (I do not have any claustrophobia and I came very close to a panic attack once at the other place) and they opened the other gate more quickly. Then you walk, again in blazing sunlight (or rain) to the visitation building. This one was less of a walk than the other pri...
Post a Comment
Read more

A New Prison, Part 1

My former student, friend, and co-author was moved to a new prison during COVID. We (myself, Mitali, and his Abuela) have visited a couple of times via the video visit functionality they set up, but we've also been trying to visit in person, ever since in-person visits were allowed again. After four of them being canceled (sometimes we were told why, sometimes not), we finally got a visit. I was super nervous about this visit. (I felt better when Mitali mentioned that she was also, because she is an inherently positive and optimistic person!) I am not proud of this, but there was a large part of me that was hoping that the visit would be canceled, just like the previous four were. I felt a little better when someone I know messaged me privately to tell me that they had had very good experiences visiting a family member in that prison. But I still didn't sleep well at all that night, worrying about the guards, the many things that could go wrong, and the projected 111-degree hea...
Post a Comment
Read more