It is no surprise that my students love the power of CHOICE. When I was an ELA teacher, I decided to start book clubs with my 6th graders. I was reluctant at first but I knew that this would motivate and excite my students to read. As a result, I noticed that my students were more engaged in meaningful conversations with one another. By infusing book clubs within my classroom, I saw that my students began to love reading! Here’s how to start book clubs in your classroom!
CONTROLLED CHOICE
Scholastic has so many great novels at an affordable price
Let’s be real. Firstly, I didn’t want to break the bank or have my students buying books with their own money. Using my scholastic Bonus Points, I ordered 6 copies of about 8 different novels that included different genres and reading levels. After looking at the 8 different novels, my students ranked their top 2 books they wanted to read. Each student wrote down their top two book choices. Then, I organized my students into small book club groupings.
SETTING RULES
As students read, they come up with questions to discuss and answer within their book club groups.
I handed each student a small notebook to use solely for book clubs. This notebook was where they wrote down their questions while reading, thoughts about the characters, and summarized what was discussed in their book club. Every time they read, each student had to come to class the next day with 2 ‘open ended’ discussion questions that they could discuss with their book club group. For example, when I had 4 students in the book club, that meant there would be 8 open ended questions to discuss with each other. As always, I told my students that this notebook would count as a quiz grade.
HOLDING STUDENTS ACCOUNTABLE
Using these reading tasks cards ensure that students are on task and focused during book clubs.
As students met with their book club group, I purposefully sat in with each group and briefly asked them questions about what was going on so far. I asked them about the plot, who the characters were, and what they thought about the book so far. I decided to create Reading Comprehension Cards that could be used with any book! This was perfect for book clubs. These questions truly kept my students on track when discussing their books with their group The best part was that it worked with EVERY BOOK!. You can download your free sample of my Reading Comprehension Cards HERE! The full version is also available in my TpT Store. You can access the FULL version HERE.
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