All of
Chapter Nine had me really engaged and excited! When I first heard about book
clubs in CF High School, I was immediately interested. I love book clubs for my
personal life, and I think that if we could bring in book clubs to the
classroom, then we could get more students reading things that they are
interested in. By providing the students with a guided selection of books,
meaning the books they can pick from are provided and reviewed by the teacher,
the students gain a little bit of independence in the classroom.
With a
concept that is very open for interpretation as the Book Clubs, the chapter
lays it out in a way so that teachers have a clear definition and examples of
how to use the concept in the classroom. The chapter takes the readers through
how to prep the class for the activity, how to form the groups, the roles of
the students and the teacher, and finally how to assess the activity. That was
always my big question about book clubs, how do you assess the students to find
out if they are learning anything through individual reading and small group
discussions. I think that providing note papers and then randomly collecting
them is a useful way to keep the students doing their work because they don’t know
when their paper will be collected.
The chapter also talks about having the
students create the rubric for assessment. This was a new concept for me, but
after thinking about it, I see how it can be useful for the students as well as
the teacher. From the students giving the specific rubric criteria point
values, they become aware of how their completion of work is going to score in
the rubric. Through classroom discussion, the students have a say in what they
feel they should be graded on and then they become aware of what they need to
do to receive all the possible points that they had assigned a certain criteria.
This is useful in all areas so students know what is expected of themselves. Instead
of the teacher holding the students accountable, the students are holding
themselves and each other accountable for their grades.
There
are also many websites that help with Book Clubs in the classroom. I found a
whole lesson plan on how to use the Book Clubs in the class: www.readwritethink.org.
Even though the lesson plan was created for younger grades, it could still be
applied to the high school level by changing the reading level of the books and
providing roles for the student’s discussions. I would love to implement the
use of a Book Club in a future classroom of mine!
Laura, I too really enjoyed this chapter. As I mentioned in my blog, every time I wondered about something they would answer it. It was like they were hearing my questions. They did a great job providing step by step details on how to implement the book club idea. I really liked that the book clubs really get students talking about the text, which in turn will help them be better equipped to write about it. I know I write a much better paper when I talk it through first. They will have so many ideas to work with.
ReplyDeleteLaura, I think what you're saying about how incorporating student opinion into the grading process makes students more accountable, in a good way!, is totally right. At the RIWP a couple weekends ago, one of the presenters talked about just this and I totally latched on because it just makes so much sense! How do we get students to care about what they're doing? Well, ask them what they think they should care about and then hold them to it. If they don't meet the standard, it is not your fault for setting it too high but rather a choice to ask the student, "you thought this was important, why didn't you do it?" it will create students that are self-aware of the work they are producing and feel accountable for it. Then there aren't students saying "well she failed me cause she hates me" but rather students that are saying "well, I knew I was supposed to do that but I didn't so it's my fault I got a bad grade."
ReplyDeleteI'm really glad that you like the idea of book clubs in a classroom. I agree that having students have a choice in the text that they read means that they gain some independence in the classroom. I also think it's important to get students discussing information that they have read with each other. I really liked the idea of having students contribute to what is in a rubric. From the panels that we have listened to and from what we have heard in class I have learned that students should be very involved in the classroom. Having students contribute to how they are graded is a way to have them involved and teachers are able to see what they think are crucial aspects of assignments.
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