Book Clubs Have Begun :)

Do you use literature circles?
I have utilized literature circles for years. Usually, I have started them in the spring once I'm finished with the basal.  This year, however, I've been teaching differently.  I haven't been using the basal as much and have been teaching using different methods. I use a little bit of Daily 5 mixed with a little bit of Reading Workshop.  This year, I feel as if I have been "finding my way" again after so many years of traditional teaching using the basal.

It's been a struggle trying to "figure it all out", but that is why I have turned to blogging so much over the last year.  Reading blogs and connecting with fellow bloggers has literally changed my way of thinking and teaching.  It's been a life-saver for me in many cases.

Book Clubs

I've been using my literature circles since the fall.  I call them Book Clubs because I wanted my students to love books like I do with my own book club.  At the beginning of the year, I told my students about how I am a part of a book club.  I explained how book clubs work.  We all read a book chosen by the next hostess and read that book.   I told my students that they were going to be a part of their own book clubs.  They were thrilled!

In the past, I used jobs in literature circles.   I'm sure you have seen them around:
*Discussion Director
*Vocabulary Finder
*Summarizer
*Question Writer

Depending on the resource you use, there are different types of jobs.  If you are interested, you can go to Read, Write, Think and find many resources for job descriptions for using with literature circles.

However, I do not use roles anymore.

My students don't do a great job with the "jobs".  They all want to do each roll. Every.single.time.  I'm not upset about that, on the contrary, I love that they all want to have ownership in all aspects of the "book talk discussions".  It's as if they are at their own little book club dinner group.  {Just without the dinner}.

How do you run Book Clubs?

Just like with my own book club, we have a "host or hostess" each time that is the book talk leader.  I do assign one person to the be leader, but this rotates at every meeting.  Just like hostessing a book club would rotate, too. This leader is in charge of leading the discussions and posing questions when there's a lull in the conversation.

I group students based on their MAP testing and Lexile levels and I usually have 6 groups going at a time.  There are anywhere between 3-6 students in each group.  Once I see the dynamics of the group (based on Lexile) I start looking for books. I do give each group a choice between several books and they decide as a team which book to read.  I explain that this is how my own book club works.

Here's where my subscription to EdHelper has become invaluable.  (And, no, I'm not being paid to tell you this.)

EdHelper has a "Literature Units" database that is enormous.  Just looking under the 4th grade book list alone, there are hundreds of books that have story questions (and high-level, questions, not JUST basic recall information).  I don't want to limit my book selections to JUST the books that I've read. Therefore, I can use these questions and answers to help guide my students in their book talk discussions.  You can also find a wealth of book study resources on Teachers Pay Teachers.

How do you start?

I make a file folder with the questions printed from EdHelper.  I make one for each student.  I distribute these folders at the beginning of our Book Club.  Each student has the questions BEFORE reading that will be discussed during the Book Club's book talk.  I have my students look over the questions before reading, too, so that they can use this to guide their thinking while reading.

I have them get with their book clubs when I first assign the book so that they can preview the book and decide as a group how they want to break up the reading.  They know that they will have three weeks to finish the entire book.  As a group, they must decide how many chapters to read each week.  It works very nicely.  Then, students read their book during their "Read to Self" time of our reading rotations.  They also have the option to read the book at home, during free time, etc.

We meet to have our "Book Talks" each Thursday.  During this time, the students get together and start discussing the book first.  Listening to them talk about the book is my favorite time of the week.  I walk around during this time soaking up all the "book love".  At the beginning of the year, I modeled how this should be done.  I "pretended" with several student volunteers that we were sitting at my dining room table talking about a book.  We practiced with the read aloud that we had just completed.  We just talked.
*Did you like the book?
*What did you think of _______________?
*Why did this character do _________?
*Can you believe that he __________________?
*I was shocked when _________________.

I have given them "thinking stems" for their Read to Self letters and sometimes I tell students to pull these out if they are struggling with what to talk about.   I haven't had to do this the last two book talks! Yay!

When they are finished chatting, I tell them to pull out the questions from their folders.  They discuss these questions and where they are found in the book.  Sometimes, there is quite a debate over a question.  That is when I remind them that they must refer to the book and "prove it" to the other person.  When they are finished, they all go back to their seats and answer the questions independently.

I'm loving book clubs.  My students love them, too.

I can't wait until Thursday each week, now. 

Do you use book clubs?  How do you make it work for you?  I'd love for you to leave me a comment letting me know.