I see most of the components of the Book Club model in my classroom. My students participate in Writers Workshop every day. Lately they have just been finishing up a personal narrative story but they are moving into writing text to-(self, text, etc.) comparisons. We usually have a teacher read aloud about two times per week. These are typically shorter picture books, even though my students are in third and fourth grade. My CT uses these texts to help explain more complicated ideas (such as the phases of the moon) and also to develop reading comprehension strategies. I have not yet seen any shared reading but independent reading is a major part of my classroom. My teacher incorporates at least 30 minutes of independent reading time every day. Sometimes students are reading a book of their choice and other times they are reading an assigned book. Lately my fourth grade students have even been doing a structured book club activity; they meet in small groups and talk about discussion questions based on the book they are reading. It is interesting to see all of the various Book Club Plus components in action in my own classroom.
My CT is also spending a little time each day focusing on helping students become better speakers. My students each brought in a small box filled with a few of their “treasures” and each day two students share what they brought with the class. After sharing, other students can comment on what they thought their classmates did well (i.e. “you spoke loud enough for everyone to hear”). Though this does not exactly fit in with Book Club Plus, students are still learning the many components of being effective public speakers.
I know that my CT is familiar with the Book Club Plus model and therefore I see a lot of strong comparisons in my classroom. One chapter that stood out to me in particular was chapter 3, Making Meaning with Text. The graph of Teacher’s Roles in Instruction on page 31 was very familiar to me. When my CT teaches a comprehension strategy she always begins by explaining it explicitly and giving an example of it herself. She then has the students try out the strategy in their own reading and eventually is only there to periodically remind students to use it.
Sounds like you've got a lot going in your classroom. I see a lot of similar things in my classroom, such as the use of shorter picture books to convey bigger messages. Funny that you should name phases of the moon, we used a picture book for that too. Although I'm not always convinced as to the usefulness of the text / that it was used in a useful manner. Does that make sense? I mean that a useful book could be just read and lightly discussed without actually facilitating any learning or creating much interest.
ReplyDeleteI am drawn to the small book club your students are running. We are doing this as well and I am curious as to what yours looks like. Is it fully student led? Who provides the discussion questions? Decides the reading assignment? Are there other things that go on beside discussion surrounding the story?
It's cool that Myla's grooming your students for public speaking already (let's eradicate that number one fear!). I can totally see her explicitly giving a comprehension strategy. Dude, I gotta get over to your classroom to see your CT teach! Hehehe.