Synthesis Blog 5

After reading chapter 9, I believe a book club is a great strategy to include in lesson planning; I think it would ultimately cultivate an atmosphere of independent thinking. The book club example in the book reminded me of the Think Alouds that we have been creating. The students in the example have thoughts and questions written out on sticky notes which they can talk about among themselves in class.

I really liked how it mentioned that book clubs are mostly student-led. The teacher obviously needs to facilitate to a certain extent, but once the students know the teacher’s expectations, they can take over the conversation. I also like how Subject Matters describes the book club as a playful environment. This should be a very low-stress environment for the students, even if they didn’t read the assigned reading. They can still contribute to the conversation, or they can sit and listen to their peers.

As a teacher, my most important job would be to find books that are both fun and educational and that related to the content in the classroom. Students also shouldn’t feel forced to read one book, so they would need a variety to choose from. I like how within each book club each student is assigned a specific job whether it’s the questioner, the connector, the vocabulary person, etc. This way each student gets to contribute his/her own thoughts, and everyone walks away with a better understanding of the book. Adding onto the low-stress environment, the rubric for these assignments which is provided in this chapter is designed to give students the freedom to have fun with the assignment. They simply have to read, discuss it, and show the notes to prove that they read.  

(WC:289)