Book clubs in the classroom

Book club plus blog: chapters 1-5

The ideas that were presented in the first 5 chapters of book club plus are very similar to the kinds of things that we do in reading and writing in my classroom. We implement both reader’s and writer’s workshop. Book clubs will also begin to take place as the year progresses. My teacher has been doing this for a couple years and says it works well.

In Book Club Plus, they talk about the building blocks or framework of the books. Those components are literacy block, writer’s workshop, teacher read aloud, shared reading and independent reading. I have seen almost all of these go on in my classroom. During reading the students are split into groups and work on vocabulary and word studies in literacy blocks. They are broken up by their level. Each level has a different set of words; within each set of words students may be responsible for 5/10 or 18 words for the week. We also do writer’s workshop. In writer’s workshop the students receive a mini lesson before they write. After the mini lesson they are released to write in their journals. This is similar to the community share they talk about in the Book Club Plus. Included in every reading lesson, there is a teacher read aloud. During this time the teacher reads a story to the students aloud while they sit and listen. She may model different reading strategies during this time. The students also ask questions after she reads. The one thing that I have not seen my teacher do is shared reading. There has not been a time when the teacher reads aloud and the students follow along in their own copy of the book. This may be something that can be implemented during guided reading time when all the students are reading the same book. Right now each student has chosen their own book that interests them. The students in my class are constantly reading independently. They have time during reader’s workshop to read independently. If they get done with any assignment during the day early they are also supposed to read independently at this time. Writing is incorporated into the students reading by writing letters. During the time they are reading the book they write letters to the teachers. In these letters they can tell about the book, ask questions, make predictions or discuss anything else that they think about while reading. This makes the student accountable for what they are reading and keeps them thinking about their books.

One way that our literacy program is set up differently than discussed in the books is the days that our literacy blocks and book clubs occur on. We do both every day. There is enough time built into our day that we can accomplish both. Especially since we are broken into groups and have 2 teachers in the room. Since it’s the beginning of the school year we are just now beginning to work on revising and publishing our writing.

In reading workshop the students are learning how to make sense of what they are reading. They are learning to make predictions like described in the book. One way that my students do it which is unique is by writing their prediction on a post it and placing it in their book. This way they can go back to what they were thing and see if they were right or if their prediction has changed based on what has happened after that in the story. We learned in chapter 3 that vocabulary development is included in background knowledge. While reading aloud my teacher will stop on a work that the student might not know. We write that word and its definition down so we can go back to it for future reference. One way the book suggested the student’s processes the text is to visualize what is going on. In my class we call this making a mental movie. We tell the students that they should see a movie of what is going on in their book.

One thing that contrast how my reading lessons from the one talked about in the book is the writing into through and out of. I have no experienced any of my students writing into their stories. They do not do any pre-writing to reading their book. However, their letter writing may be considered writing through the story or even writing into if they are making predictions about the next chapters. Since none of my students have finished a book yet, they are unable to write out of. I know that eventually they will be doing this, but it has yet to happen.

I also have not seen too much talk going on. They talk with the teachers when we conference with them. when we conference we focus on what strategies they are using to become better readers and now really what is going on in their stories at this time. I am not sure if this is going to change or not. I think I will see a lot more talk when we begin to do guided reading book clubs. I hope that they will learn to have student led discussions as described in the book, where they ask and answer each other’s questions.

There are many similarities between what goes on in my classroom and the things described in the book. I am interested to see if more similarities appear as the year goes on or if we will venture in another direction.

I see reading, writing, speaking and viewing all day. Since a large part of our day is set aside for reading and writing, I see these being formally taught as well as used in the classroom. Reading and writing are taught separately as well as integrated into each other lesson. During the reading lessons the students are responsible to write letters about their books. Reading takes place in writing when the students are reading over something they have written editing it and publishing it.

Lastly, I have not seen a lot of writing into, through or out of. I think that as the year goes on I will see more of it. The only example that I can think of at this point is when the students write letters making perditions about what is going to happen next.