Synthesis Blog Post #5
Content-Area Book Clubs
The
idea of starting with a ‘warm up’ in which students discuss and
generate questions from generic topics with every child contributing
seems very effective for later down the road. I had never done this in
any book club I was in, but I was in only one before college.
Collaborative
learning is a term that I have never actually seen but I believe to be
the most important of a book club. Independent learning is terrific, but
with collaborative learning, the effort and group as a whole share
knowledge, expand on ideas, and critique passages that might have not
been addressed elsewhere. On page 243, the bulleted list states that the
teacher does not lead any group discussions, rather facilitating, and
only generating thought-provoking question. In turn, this forces
students to be creative and think ‘outside-the-box' knowing that the
instructor can’t ‘dig’ a student out of a hole completely.
The
concept of training prior to the start of the book club is highly
important, I would prefer the ‘fishbowl’ method (244) in which I would
show students a short video on a gist of how thrse clubs operate.
Book
choice might perhaps be the most important aspect of book clubs. Choice
plays a key role in everyone’s lives. When people believe that they
have a choice or can control their own ‘book club destiny’,
participation tends to be much higher (246). I would likely present
about 6-8 books for my future classroom.
I
did not actually fully grasp the reasoning behind group size until I
read page 246 (although now it seems obvious). Groups of four will be
the magic number. And based off my experiences, I find this to be true,
especially in workshops that I’ve been in. I’ve been in two, and one of
them only required three people to a group. I was afraid to critique
anyone’s work for their benefit because I felt that it would come off as
personal if I was the only one in the group who felt that way.
Therefore, I stuck with the same comments that the group offered. (328
words)
Hey Alex! This chapter was very eye opening to me in considering all the logistical decisions that are involved in creating a classroom book club. I thought your experience with grouping was interesting. I hadn’t thought about that before, but you’re right. We do have to consider that some students may be afraid to speak up in a smaller group in fear of being ganged up on. However, we must also be cautious of making the group too large where students become shy to speak up with a large number of their peers. I think 4-5 is the perfect number.
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Great analysis Alex! I got a lot from reading this chapter in Subjects Matter, but I also think it is very important that we are able to hear other peoples' thoughts and ideas when it comes to lessons in the classroom. Reading your analysis of the chapter helped me gain a better knowledge and better ideas when it comes to book clubs in the classroom. I agree with you and Katie when you both say that a group size should not be too big or too small, but I think 4-5 people in a group is an appropriate size.
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