Middle School ELA // Book Clubs
The idea of classroom book clubs was first introduced to me while reading the book 180 Days by Kelly Galagher and Penny Kittle; two extremely influential English Language Arts educators. In 180 Days, the authors describe book club as a tool for building comprehension skills, creating lifelong readers, and as a way to build community within their classrooms. I was hooked from the very start!! In classroom book clubs, the teacher will pick several books and students can either pick from the list provided or the books can be assigned by the teacher. Students will read their books independently throughout the week, following a reading schedule that was created by the teacher, and then meet with the students who are reading the same book as them on Fridays to discuss. While students are independently reading, they should be tracking their thinking by using the comprehension questions and the sentence starters provided by the teacher. This process should continue throughout the entire school year so that students are able to practice their independent reading skills as well as their speaking and listening skills.
This year at DAA Upper School, I had the pleasure of teaching the 8th grade Workshop class and I saw this as an opportunity to start class book clubs with my kiddos!! My goal was mainly to just get the students reading by exposing my students to interesting titles that they may not have picked on their own. As a Secondary ELA teacher, I will often hear students complain about reading, but what students are actually complaining about is reading the curriculum texts that have been assigned to them. Many of these students have been turned off to reading because reading for them has been associated with the school work that follows. I wanted to expose students to the joy of reading!! I wanted to show my students that there are books that fit their unique interests and reading levels. I also wanted to help my students to build those reading comprehension skills that they need in order to be successful in life.
In our first round of book clubs, I decided to pick the books for students and to place them in groups based on their reading levels and interests. Students were given 15 minutes of class time to read and they could read at home if they needed to. We read independently Monday - Wednesday and then on Thursday we would meet with our groups to discuss what we read for the week.
There were a few ways that I chose to support students throughout this process. I would meet with students individually throughout the week to discuss how the reading was going for them, ask them comprehension questions, and to try to get a feel for what book they might be interested in next. I loved the days when I would pick one group to read with. I was able to see where each group was in their reading and support the group as a whole. I would also meet with one book club group once a week, on Thursdays, to help model how to discuss their thoughts on what they read, how to ask questions and build upon their group mates thoughts.
Students were very skeptical at first, but by the end of the first week, I was completely overjoyed at the responses that I received from students. There were some students who started reading ahead because they loved their books so much. There were some students who hated reading previously, but now were excited and engaged!! I saw students reading in class after they completed an assignment or in the cafeteria during lunch. There were some students who asked for the next book in a series or another book by the same author. I couldn’t ask for anything more!! To watch my students learn and grow as readers, has been such an honor and joy!!