Consider the ideas discussed in Book Club Plus! about talk in the classroom and managing book club. How do these ideas compare with what you are seeing in your own classroom regarding classroom talk and managing your literacy program? If you were going to try out some aspects of book club, what types of support would you need to provide?
Book Club Plus talked about discussion/talk as a way of evaluating/assessing our students. I found this interesting because often times teachers get stuck on the mentality of giving tests that involve students responding to questions by writing the answers. However, listening to discussions of our students can be just as informative of what they’ve learned and where they are at, if not more informative. Discussions allow for them to openly discuss something rather than being limited by a specific question the teacher asks them to respond to in writing. This is not something I have seen done in my classroom, but is something I would like to bring into assessments for my literacy unit. I think other types of assessments may need to go along with discussions, but discussions can certainly be a great way to learn about the students and where they are at in terms of literacy.
Since discussion has not been something that has occurred yet in my classroom, the management of it when I begin will be very important. I think setting norms for discussions of what is expected is very important. Book Club Plus says “Teachers have found it helpful to engage students in the process of developing rubrics to guide their reading, writing, and talk” (96). I think this is a wonderful idea. If the students are engaged in developing the rubrics they will truly understand what is being asked of them. A few things that I would be sure are stated in my classroom norms for discussions are “ask questions, share your ideas, stay on topic, listen, and don’t be afraid to disagree with something as long as you don’t do so in a negative way.” Setting up these norms would be a very important support as I begin discussion with my students since they don’t have any previous experience with discussions, at least this year.
I also think the fishbowl would be a great idea to lead my students into the idea of working with small groups and discussing books within their groups. Since my students are in 5th grade it would be difficult to have an older students model a book club in the fishbowl, but I think the idea of having me and/or my CT in the fishbowl with 2 or 3 other students as a book club model would work group. My CT and I could choose a couple of the higher achieving literacy students to have a discussion in the fish bowl with us based on the book we are currently reading aloud. This would allow the students outside the fishbowl to see a model of a good discussion because my CT and I could lead the discussion with the other students in group and also the students watching would be familiar with the book we’re discussing. I think it would then be good to have a whole class discussion about the pros and cons of the discussion that they just viewed. This would be a great way to support my students and lead them into understanding how to successfully talk about a book with their groups and also the class as a whole. Then we could eventually fishbowl with different groups taking turns inside of the fishbowl.
An aspect of book club that I would like to try out is the integration of literacy with other content areas, such as social studies. My CT is currently reading The Sign of the Beaver to my students, which is a historical fiction book. She has been teaching the students about historical facts while reading the book and relating it to what they’re learning in social studies. I would like to be able to relate books to not just Social Studies, but also science and math. In order to integrate the subjects I would need to be sure that the students understand the relation and it’s not a far stretched idea because that could cause more confusion.
Read alouds are the main thing from book club that I HAVE seen in my class. My students seem to really enjoy listening to my CT read. I often hear them asking her to read more when she’s finished for the day. The read alouds lend so well to think alouds which I think are a great way of modeling the thought process that students should be having when they read their own books. It also gives many ideas as to what students could be discussing about books in their book clubs. I would like to continue with read alouds when I start teaching literacy. Book Club Plus says “The benefits of a read-aloud unit range from developing students’ language literacy, and literature appreciation to broadening their cultural perspectives and building a classroom community” (201). I think that this perfectly states why read-alouds are important and useful in classrooms and why I want to incorporate them in my classroom.
Guided reading groups are also something that I would like to try in my classroom. I have not seen them in my classroom yet but I know that my CT plans to set them up once the MEAP is over. I think this would be helpful because I have a lot of low-level students in my classroom and they could greatly benefit from smaller groups and also meeting with me and my CT in their groups. This would also allow us to have the students reading at their level so that they are learning something from their reading rather than reading something that is too difficult for them.
Overall I have not seen much discussion or management of book club in my class. The only talk that occurs in my classroom in terms of literacy is when my students respond to comprehension questions that my CT asks. However, there are no group discussions yet. The only management that I see of book club is the read-alouds. Since I haven’t seen many of the Book Club Plus ideas in action I am a little nervous to try implementing parts of it, but I am ready to try. I think the parts of book club plus that I have discussed above will be beneficial to my students and a great challenge to me. I look forward to implementing these new ideas. I would like to implement one at a time so that my students do not have a lot of different things thrown at them at once and also so that I can manage one at a time to see what works and doesn’t work before I move on to something else. I think that continuing with read-alouds will be a perfect segway into other book club plus ideas because I can then use my read-aloud to start the fishbowl which will then start discussion and lead into reading groups where the students can discuss books that they’re groups are reading.
Although Shayna and I team teach I still feel that she discussed valuable ideas worth me responding. As she stated our CT’s don’t really engage the students in much discussion that isn’t really teacher led. I agree that the fishbowl idea would be a wonderful technique to test out with our students. Shayna and I thought that if we modeled the fishbowl technique with our students various times that our students would eventually have watched and observed how the process works then we would be able to implement the technique without be a participant. The only apprehension we have with this technique is that our CT’s would be very curious and I feel that we would have to be very informed and prepared with this technique because I would it to go well because I feel that they would be watching us so closely. I think this is one of the main aspects that I need to overcome prior to beginning my guided lead teaching.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I know that my CT is supportive and our relationship is great I still feel very nervous to have someone watching me and judging my lesson implementation. In Book Club Plus! it discusses some of the benefits of this fishbowl technique, “. . . fishbowl is a wonderful context for improving students’ discussion strategies. It provides a convenient site for teachers to scaffold their students’ early book club discussions” (117). I think this technique will be especially helpful to our students seeing as they have very little experience and exposure to discussions. Although this is quite different from anything mine or Shayna’s CT’s have done before, I think a teacher could think about it as another way of modeling. For example, when we read aloud to our students we are modeling good reading fluency, tone, expression, etc. Sometimes when we do “think alouds” we model how students can internally have a a conversation with themselves about a piece of literature. It’s a great way to promote reading for understanding and reading comprehension skills. I think the more I think about the fishbowl technique and come up with an understanding for its many uses the more excited I get that we may include this in our lesson unit.