Book Clubs

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Overall, I enjoy the idea of book clubs because I believe that they are a fun, collaborative way to build reading comprehension and morale in a classroom. When I was in middle school language arts classes, reading fiction books as a class or in a group was always my favorite activity. I enjoyed abandoning traditional assignments and activities to get the chance to read something that would peak my interest and attention. Even though I found that many of my peers did not enjoy reading as much as I did at that age, many of my peers would still collaborate and be engaged in a group environment. In my opinion, doing book clubs in this class reiterated the benefit that reading and collaboration can have in a classroom. Also, I enjoyed that the assessments were low-stakes because tests and quizzes always took the fun out of reading a book in class. However, I saw the benefit of taking notes on post-it notes almost instantly after I started reading our book, Hoot. It enabled me to connect the book to different content-areas that I could see the book being incorporated in. In addition, I found that the book was filled with life-lessons and experiences that students would benefit from reading about. Also, there is plenty of subtle humor that I believe students in middle school would enjoy. Hoot is definitely a book that I could see myself using in an earth or life science or even a social studies classroom. At the very least, I would use a few of the sections of the book as excerpts to introduce concepts or ideas. I have really enjoyed the book club because it has made me realize the benefits that it really have for students.

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Comments

  1. UnknownNovember 13, 2018 at 6:20 PM

    Luke,

    I had a similar response as you with reading in middle school. I did not know many people that enjoyed reading a book and then having to take a test or quiz over it. I know our experiences are anecdotal, but it makes me wonder what that says about programs like accelerated readers and the influence (positive or negative) they have on readers.

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