Book Clubs Continued

Online Book Clubs

It's All About the Book: Motivating Teens to Read Diane Lapp and Douglas Fisher
Wiki Literature Circles: Creating Digital Learning Communities Elizabeth Edmonson
Digital Literacies Cassandra Scharber
Mini-Lessons for Literature Circles Harvey Daniels and Nancy Steiner

Say: 
Lapp and Fisher give the basis for the reasoning behind book clubs...it motivates and gets students reading what THEY like and learn how to interact with a text by making person connection. The basis of book clubs is founded upon reflecting on reader response and teaching students how to become life long readers. They note that the participation will come when students take ownership in their choice, which I think is really important and powerful for high school students to understand they hold a lot of power as a reader who can play a part in what they decide to read. I thought the idea of a moderator was interesting because in previous readings, they strayed away from possible roles in the book clubs, but I do think there needs to be a level of accountability for the group, which could be in the form of a moderator. 

Well as we know, bridging technology and teaching is one of my personal struggles; however, the past few months have definitely opened me up to at least the familiarity with being creative and engaging with technology. The Edmonson article talked about using wikis and I have to disagree with this because during our technology course, I did a tutorial on Wikispaces and found it to be in no way user friendly. (Even Ms. Byrd agreed with me) I wouldn't recommend wikispaces because I think there are better ways to utilize the various technological advancements out there in todays world for book clubs. I do agree with her premise and I think online book clubs can answer the question that so many teachers worry about, which is finding the time to fit in book clubs. I also like the idea of digital learning communities and even though I don't like wikis, I definitely realized how blogs or other digital spaces can do the same thing. Even though it is hard for me to understand, most of my students use technology for social media purposes. I've realized that students do not necessarily associate school and technology or at least using technology as a true source of endless possibilities and power for learning about so many things. I think book clubs can be a fun and social way for students to use the medium they are familiar with. Also, I think students do not know how to conduct themselves appropriately on the internet due to social media so just as we teach them to listen and speak inside the classrooms, it is important for us to ensure that we teach them the way in which we speak to each other online. 

In Scharber's article, she continues the search in bridging old and new literary practices. Even though I haven't worked with Moodle, it seems a lot more user friendly compared to wikispaces as well as providing a space that can do a lot more than just simple discussions. For someone who struggles with technology, I feel like I would try to use Moodle due to her detailed explanation of its uses for literature circles. 

I really enjoyed the mini lesson book because its practicality and I could see myself using several of these mini-lessons. I also appreciate how they consider all aspects of book clubs even from what could go wrong in the lesson. Also, I think mini lessons bridge that essential gap between just solely using Reader Response method and going into more critical analysis and close readings. Literature circles and book clubs are a space where teachers and students can find the right balance between reader response and New Criticism. Also, the books structure was really engaging because it scaffolded the reader by introducing the scenario and then developing different strategies, which I found helpful because it allowed me to visualize some of the step by step processes that I would need to go through to get my kids into the literature circles. The book's strategies also reiterated the strategies we have touched on in previous articles such as visualization, decoding, predicting, and questioning. One of the sections that made me think was dealing with the slackers and unprepared students. I feel like grading should be individualized, yet also include participating with the whole group because that really is one of the major purposes of these activities. I liked the suggestion that the book made for students who came unprepared because it gave the group the responsibility to figure it out; however, the suggestions were not necessarily excluding that member because they could listen or silently participate. Also we have been talking a lot about the importance of giving the students choice, including their choice to drop the book that they are reading. Honestly, I didn't think about this before, but I can definitely see this happening and I liked the solution that the book offered. This book was great because all of the mini-lessons are so adaptable for any teacher to use for their own purpose. I really loved the ending because of the fun little projects that the students could do. I felt like I could use them for their book clubs, but also translate it to our canonical text. The video and tableaux skits were great because I feel like they wouldn't take a whole week for students to complete! 



Do:

I really liked the Tableaux activity because you can adapt this for various mini-lessons. I could see myself doing a mini lesson for the week that focuses on teaching students rising, falling action, climax and resolution. Just as the book suggest, I would have students talk about in their book clubs some different topics of their choice; however, I would include that they have to distinguish the rising, falling action, climax, and resolution of their books. If the students haven't read far enough to answer the climax, falling action or resolution then I want them to use some predicting and inferring. Based on what they have read they can come up with there own ideas as to what the climax might be and what might happen at the end. Once students have finished their book club meeting, I want them to take their answers and re-create the scenes for the class. Each group would go as the rest of the class watched. I'll ask the students to get into the scene that shows the rising action, after a minute in those positions, the students will go into the climax, falling, and resolution. At the end the group will explain the scenes and their choices as to why they represent the rising, falling action, climax, and resolution.  

Book Clubs

The Book Club Companion- Cindy O'Donnell Allen


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I really enjoyed Allen’s book because of its readability and practicality. I haven’t experienced book club as defined by Allen, but my AP literature course in high school did more literature circles. Before reading, my thought about book clubs was okay they are great in theory, but how do we fit or set aside that kind of time for book clubs without disregarding standards. Now I realize how book clubs can absolutely fit into anything related to standards and going beyond the standards. I was really pleased how Allen showed how to utilize book clubs that incorporated multiple perspectives and theories. The “theoretical flexibility of book clubs” really intrigued me because it was rooted in reader response, yet continually building into other perspectives such as New Criticism, Interpretive Community, and formal analysis. I really liked that she wasn’t using only reader response, but showed how starting with book clubs, which is based in reader response, grows into show much more for both the teachers and the students.

I believe students need to have time in class to read because we all know that there are some students who will not read outside of class due to several different factors. I know Allen had them read their books outside of class so I’m wondering if she had any issues with students who simple came to book clubs unprepared. I do think students can be scaffolded into reading outside of class and perhaps book clubs are great incentive for students to read outside of class. We have talked about how crucial it is for students to voice their opinions and make personal connections to books so giving students the opportunity to read a book of their choice is crucial. It’s important for students to get pleasure or enjoy reading those books. Even though students have a choice, I do think it’s important for teachers to think about the bigger picture as Allen talks about perhaps choosing books that go with a unit or connect with each other in relation to the canonical text. This also leads into building upon reader response into critical analysis. I was pleased to find a lot of her activities could be specified to a particular reading strategy that allows the students to analyze the text as they would any canonical text. The variety or flexibility does give teachers the ability to teach students visualization, questioning, inferencing, predictions, formal analysis, and critical synthesis. This kind of practice and scaffolding is really effective in my opinion because students get the practice from a non canonical text that also scaffolds them into developing those same skills that they'll use on their canonical text; therefore, it is a little less daunting to a high school school student when they start reading the classics. 

As I read this book, I also thought that Book Clubs can coexist with Socratic Seminars in the way they teach students to interact with literature by talking and listening. Book Clubs already set the stage for helping students develop those skills and I feel like it would allow for an easier transition into doing Socratic Seminars with the students. Book clubs teach them how to discuss the unknown of their selected books and come to some insights along with their peers.  

Do:
I am going to continue using Night as a book of reference because I really liked the Mind Map activity for characterization. If the canonical text was Night, then I would try to select a group of texts that surrounded with Holocaust narratives, genocide from other regions(Rwanda, etc) and possible open it even further into diaspora/the immigrant story. I know that sounds steep to find YA about those topics, but I think there are definitely some out there! Since these stories have alot going on mentally such as survival instincts, I think Mind Map could get the kids talking about their protagonist's mind and then how the author is characterizes them. This activity would be before they get into their book clubs! 

Fostering Talk Around Literature

Milner and Milner, Bridging English 
M. Copeland, Socratic Circles 
Styslinger and Pollock, The Chicken and the Egg 
Styslinger and Overstreet, Strengthening Argumentative Writing with Speaking and Listening (Socratic) Circles 
Probst, Response and Analysis 
Probst, Tom Sawyer, Teaching and Talking 


Say:

Milner and Milner note the importance of an oral foundation for the students because talking is the basic foundation for everyone that interacts and communicates in the world. Speaking and listening should be a part of a teachers curriculum, whether it is blatant or in there hidden curriculum because I feel that adolescents have so much to say, yet they are unable to articulate it. Implementing strategies that involve speaking and listening as way to foster talk around literature only helps the students become better critical thinkers and life long readers as well as all around articulate young adults. ( I don't mean that students need to convert to standard English, but this kind of articulation and formulation of thoughts involves native languages). 

The Socratic Circles article was enjoyable and also helped me to visualize how this would potentially work in a classroom. I really like the idea of using Socratic Circles in my classroom one day. This kind of strategy makes the English major in me happy because it reminds me of the discussions I had in college and it fostered my love of reading even more. I think it is important for students to have this kind of experience; however, to achieve an amazing Socratic Circle the teacher must scaffold and guide the students to explore there own potential and ability to talk about literature. The article Socratic Circle article gave several examples as to why this strategy directly promotes independent critical thinkers and I like the idea of giving students ownership of discussions. One of the things that stuck out to me was the act of listening, which as we know is hard for young adolescents. Students are learning simultaneously to speak as well as listen carefully others. The article notes that this strategy helps them develop the ability to listen with their mind and translate the information that is being spoken while analyzing it. That is such a hard thing for anyone to master, but I really love it because I think it is such a fundamental part of being a critical learner/thinker. I definitely think this needs to be scaffolded into the classroom and heavy instruction on process, expectations, and guidelines need to be in place for students to truly benefit from the experience, but I also see these elements intertwining into different aspects of my classroom. 

Styslinger and Overstreet's article was great in highlighting the ways to use it for argumentative writing. I liked the idea of utilizing socratic circles for the purpose of getting kids to debate, make claims, and give evidence that supports it. I saw how difficult those concepts were for 9th graders and I think socratic circles would be a great scaffolding technique to get them thinking, speaking, and listening to claims surrounding a text or a theme. I have also noticed that students rarely ask questions that further the discussion so socratic circles can be used to teach them how to ask those questions that are a counter point/claim to something someone has said. Instead of teaching students the outline or guide to writing an argumentative paper  Styslinger's and Pollock's article was also insightful in helping me understand the nature of talk and its importance in the classroom. I appreciated that they noted what did not work with students and I really connected with the student who stated that he liked it when everyone talks, but he doesn't want to be the one talking. That was me as a student so I can relate; however, I never experienced Socratic Circles in my high school classes so perhaps it would have at least made me become more open to the idea of talking in class discussions. The article also notes that teachers need to talk to students about talking, which I can see being super beneficial because I don't think they realize that talking is a tool to sort through problems. Like the article mentions, students often feel like they need to know or understand the text before they can talk about, but I really want them to know that this is a space for questions of misunderstandings, thoughts and opinions for talking about a particular text and theme. Also, there suggestions of picking a smaller text or broad theme was helpful because I saw my teacher do a socratic seminar with her English II honors in which the simple question was what is an American? The students had a hard time starting off, but once they got the ball rolling they wouldn't stop! I think it was a perfect way to get them in that kind of space because it was a broad topic that could go in so many directions, which I think ultimately allowed everyone to feel comfortable to say at least one thing on the topic. 

I think all the articles we read can be summed up with the analogy that Probst used in Response and Analysis. That feeling of going to a movie and discussing the movie afterwards with someone is something we all have felt and enjoyed. I think this also correlates with Probsts analogy to Tom Sawyer in Adolescent Literacy. He mentions that teaching would be easy if we could get students thinking that they want to speak/write/learn, could in fact do those things, and find out that they would do it. Motivated students to do anything is key, but I think tapping into the fact that kids do like to share and talk is a way for us to get them motivated and then scaffold those conversations into potential higher level critical synthesis. I am wondering how to incorporate those formal analysis, critical synthesis kinds of questions into the socratic circle, considering that the teacher is suppose to be in the background as the kids drive the discussion. I mean I like doing reader response as a way to get them talking about the text, but I also want them to push themselves into critical thinking so if students are not necessarily going down that path, how do I get guide them there without taking over the circle? 


Say:

I really liked Probst's strategy, Finding the Poem. I thought this was a clever way to do an ice breaker and have the kids feeling comfortable with talking to others as well as discussing a small poem/text. I could see this being adapted in a lot of ways and I don't think it necessarily has to be a group of poems. I would use this for a unit on Night by Elie Weisel, which I will probably teach next semester! (super pumped) I have heard of these poems below for Holocaust poetry and they are really good! I could cut these up and have the students try to find their pairs. After the students are comfortable with their groups, I would like to have mini socratic circles for each group where they can discuss the poem in detail. The discussion would mainly be about the poem itself and then continuing into the following days, I would have groups combine, which would form a outer/inner circle. This way students feel comfortable speaking and listening so in the future, combining a whole class socratic circle won't be as daunting. 

Primo Levi	Shema	The importance of telling future generations
Hayim Gouri	Heritage	Jewish identity
Paul Celan	Psalm	God and man
Pavel Friedman	The Butterfly	A ghetto poem
Wisława Szymborska	Could Have	Fate and empathy
Dan Pagis	Written in Pencil in the Sealed Railway-Car	Multiple themes
Martin Niemöller	First They Came for the Jews	Bystanders