Book Clubs

This week I read Chapter 5, "Building a Better Book Club" in Comprehension Going Forward.  After reading the first few pages, I was very excited about the way the author portrayed the book club. She explained how excited the students were and how the book club was run. She was not working on fluency, but comprehension and thinking, so she reads as the students follow along. This way, she can stop at more specific points in the story and talk with the students about what they are thinking. This confirms a strategy that I already use with my students. When I am focusing on comprehension, I sometimes do this too. My students actually do follow along, and this allows me a chance to model my fluency and expression. This is so much better than a "round robin" read. This book club is her guided reading group. The rest of the class has something else to do while the teacher meets with different club groups.

Book clubs are fun and exciting for students. It allows the students to enjoy reading and get excited by talking with their groups about what they are feeling and thinking. The author made note about what the students are thinking through this. Are they understanding how these book clubs are helping them become better readers. So, asking your students questions to probe their own thinking is extremely important. "How has your thinking changed? Why? And how has it deepend?" This is a key to teaching comprehension and it must be modeled.

Anchor Charts and other strategies must be modeled for students to see how a good reader thinkss through their reading. As we read, we think. I model this for my students each day when I read aloud. If when I read something I begin to feel sad, I stop and tell my students why I am feeling this way. However, students need opportunities to do this themselves. They need to have a chance to apply what I model. For me, I do not provide enough of these opportunities for my students. I do so much decoding and fluency in kindergarten, that it makes me wish I focused more on comprehension. While most of my student's books do not have enough of a plot to trigger emotions or provoke much thought, I have an idea for moving forward. As I read aloud to my students, they could create their own anchor charts and write down about how they are feeling about a story. They can also write questions they are wondering.

After reading this chapter, I am remembering my student teaching experience. At the end of first grade students can actively participate in a book club. I did this, along with literature circles, with those first graders. It was not only enjoyable for them, but also was for me. We had so much fun reading and digging deeper into the texts we read. Moving forward, I would like to do more of this with my class. My professional development proposal for change this semtester is also going to help me do this. My students are going to have chnaces to respond and talk more in the classroom. Now I know to be sure to ask them how their thinking has changed, a question I do not ask nearly enough. I cant wait to see what happens! :)