January 18

Book Club Launch

Today marks the launch of Book Clubs (or literature circles) in Grade 5. Last week, we book-talked 4 different books to the students:

Rules by Cynthia Lord

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

Holes by Louis Sachar

I am David by Anne Holm

After hearing a short description of each book, students fileld out a form and ranked the books they wanted to read. Based on their choices, we have divided them into 4 groups, all of them getting either their first or second choice of book to read.

Here’s how it will work:

Students will have 4 weeks to read their book. With their groups, they’ll decided on weekly reading goals. Each week, in addition to reading, they will also have a “job” to prepare for their group discussion. These will be based on the section they read that week. This is all to be done AT HOME as homework. Other than meeting discussions, students will not have class time to work on this.

As an example, their schedule may look something like the one below. As you can see from this picture, the top schedule outlines what everyone in the group is doing and when. The bottom chart is each student’s INDIVIDUAL schedule that says what they need to read, and what job they need to complete. They only need to complete the sheet in their folder that matches the job they are doing that week. So in week 1, as the Figurative Language Finder, I would only need to fill out the sheet titled – Week 1 – Figurative Language Finder. If they are unsure how to complete their job, students can refer back to the first pages of the package where the requirements are explained in detail. The other Week 1 sheets will be completed in class when we meet in groups for discussion.