Are We All in Agreement?

One of my beliefs in education is that if children are part of the process they will work harder.  For this reason, I lead my students to develop their own classroom expectations and norms.  If a lesson directs me to share a chart of norms or for me to share my expectations, I turn it into a WE situation.  

WE need to create our classroom expectation and WE need to agree to follow them.

WE need to create our class discussion norms.  For this activity I had to have both of my Literacy Blocks develop their list of norms and then I combined them into one set.  Luckily, they organically fell together into two categories and the combination was rather seamless.

Know Your Students, Know Your Books

I scored a tremendous treasure at the used book store, The Last Word. I bought 68 books for my classroom library and paid $100.  I added up the original publisher's price and the books would've cost $478! So I am going to celebrate this incredible deal with you by explaining why I bought these specific books.

Teachers not only match their students to books using reading levels, we match them up by interest. My students love the funny Dan Gutman series, My Weird School.

I found 12 of them for only $1 each!

I was excited to find a book to use for teaching. I am familiar with Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, but I did not know that the author, Eleanor Coerr, had written a picture version of the story for younger readers. I look forward to developing a lesson incorporating these two books.

I bought this book because it was a lower level historical fiction book. These can be hard to find.

I have a few students in my class who have low self-esteem. They realize their reading levels are low and are sometimes embarrassed by it. I chose this book because it is about a boy who always strikes out in baseball and how he overcomes his embarrassment. I think books are a great way for students to connect with characters who have similar problems or obstacles.

I bought 10 of these books this summer and I was stoked to find they had 6 more in stock!

I have a VERY talkative class this year, so this book was an obvious choice!

This series is written by the same author as The Bailey School Kids. My students like the Goosebumps books in our classroom library, but those books have too high of a level for some of my readers. These ghostly books are a lower level and less scary (in my opinion).

Girls and science...

There are lots of football and baseball books in my classroom library, but the boys said they would like to read more basketball books.

I love this graphic novel series. I mentioned it in class one day and my students never heard of Babymouse...no excuse now!

A book about the Titanic AND a dog?! Perfect for my third graders. These two topics were at the top of several interest lists.

I was reorganizing the classroom library this year and I noticed that I was on the weak side of literature with male lead characters. I picked up these 3 books because they looked fun and exciting for boys.

More books for my boys.

Yes, I know there are girls that may enjoy reading them, too. 

More male lead characters. The Hank Zipzer books are written by Henry Winkler.

Dogs, penguins, and sharks are the top animals my students enjoy reading about. They were also yelling Marco Polo on the swings during recess the other day, so that was a bonus interest match.

I can never resist legends from other cultures. I found a Cuban, a Japanese, and two Native American books.

This book is stunning. I have never heard of it before, but now I cannot wait to use it in a lesson. It will be perfect for a genre discussion because students might think it is nonfiction, or realistic fiction, or even poetry. This book will be great to launch a genre discussion. The vocabulary is high level and colorful, so it can also be used in a writing lesson.

My current copy of this book is torn and taped. I HAD to buy a new one.

Who can resist Seymour Simon?

The Usborne Discovery books all contain internet links throughout the text so that students can do further research. I think this book will be a useful addition to our classroom since students can now bring their own technology devices to school. 

Fractured fairy tales are always a hit!

I have never read this historical fiction tale.

I consider this book to fall into the category of complex text due to the author's style of writing and organization. It also has some serious themes in it. I plan on using it for a lesson on point of view.

Analyzing Book Club Jottings

I have a variety of methods I use for keeping record of my students' discussions during book clubs, but the following one is my current favorite.  It allows me to organize the students' jottings that they choose to turn in.  I record the book title (or a shortened version), the teaching point I gave in the minilesson, any anecdotal records, and a quick description of what I will discuss during conferencing with the students in that book club.

I make note of behaviors I see or patterns that appear from meeting to meeting. I am able to reflect on my notes and see which students are progressing and which remain stagnant. Sometimes I conference with individual students and other times I might meet with the whole book club together.

 

As I listen in on book club discussions, I often write down phrases or questions students say that I think should be shared with other groups.

Can ALL Students Participate in Book Clubs?

Yes! Absolutely! Of course! I have students in my morning literacy block that range in Fountas and Pinnell levels from A to Q!  The students in my afternoon literacy block range in levels from I to R.  All of my students are participating in book clubs.  I have a student with severe cerebral palsey who has no verbal skills and is in a powerchair.  She uses electronic assistance to communicate and she loves book clubs! It is a challenge to differentiate for all of these learning styles, but it is a welcome challenge because it makes me rethink my strategies. It keeps my ideas fresh and makes my students feel like valued members of the class.

 

My level C reader uses skinny, pointed sticky note tabs to mark the pages he wants to talk about in book clubs. He can write basic three or word sentences, so sometimes he is overwhelmed by jotting.  He does make drawings to show what he envisions in the story, but his sketches are very rudimentary.  By simply marking the pages he wants to talk about he is able to have a discussion with his group.  His group is comprised of himself, an exceptional needs teacher, the student with cerebral palsey, and that student's educational assistant.
The two adults in the group are part of the book club. They have their own folders and books. They prepare their jottings and complete their checklists and self-assessment rubrics just like the students.

Our Book Club Journey

We are in week 2 of our book club journey and it has been smooth sailing so far. Students are following their contracts and schedules. They are sharing, discussing, questioning, and conversing. Most of all they are enjoying reading. One of my students said they have never had a teacher tell them to just talk and not worrying about working or writing!

 

Students lay out their jottings after they use them for discussion.

Students are referencing the text during their discussions.

Students use active listening skills.

Students synthesize illustrations during discussions.

Students prepare jottings to reference during book club discussions.

All of my students, regardless of ability or level, participate in book club.

Students bring their materials to book club.