The Grade 5 teacher asked if one of our book groups could model their discussion for them, as I had done for my class. She thought it would have greater impact from older students, rather than adults, and, even though she has tried to get book studies going with her class the discussion has not flowed very well.
I volunteered a group (after receiving no volunteers) and I observed them as they modelled their discussion to the class.
They were excellent. The Grade 5 teacher was thrilled with the modelled discussion and her classes' response after we left. It really enthused her class and they were able to evaluate the discussion and draw out the benefits of group discussion of books.
As Hannibal says 'I love it when a plan comes together!'
Showing posts with label book_club the_great_gatsby model. Show all posts
Showing posts with label book_club the_great_gatsby model. Show all posts
Thursday, 25 November 2010
Thursday, 11 November 2010
Book Club modelling
3 members of staff and myself modelled a book club to my Grade 10 students this morning. We are reading The Great Gatsby and I am sure this will be the most interesting way for the class to read the novel.
I havered between the class choosing their own groups or assigning groups but decided this time that I would group the class as I am concerned about some of the dynamics and kids often seem to gravitate into the same groups.
The class have not started the novel but we decided to go ahead and discuss chapter 1 regardless. When I talked about it with one of the participants (the Elem literacy coordinator) we thought it might motivate the kids to read the book as they had a pretty negative view of the book before reading it (and I have a pretty negative view of the book after reading it!). This turned out to be a good decision - it did motivate the class and they expressed a greater interest in reading the novel.
I gave them key questions to focus their observations on the group and when we finished, asked them to "turn and talk" (taken from Stephanie Harvey's work) through the questions before asking for their feedback to the whole class.
The questions were:
What do you think is the purpose of the book club?
Why do you think the book club achieves its purpose?
What did you see/hear that showed the book club working well?
What did you see/hear that did not work well?
Judging by the feedback I received, the book club model worked very well in motivating the class to read the novel and excited to start the process themselves (I didn't even get any gripes about the reading groups). They saw how talking about the chapter expanded each participant's view of what they had read and deepened their understanding of the novel.
Each group compiled a calendar of reading and meeting to discuss over the next three weeks and a set of ground rules for their group, both of which they submitted to me.
One of those great lessons that works as you want it to!
I havered between the class choosing their own groups or assigning groups but decided this time that I would group the class as I am concerned about some of the dynamics and kids often seem to gravitate into the same groups.
The class have not started the novel but we decided to go ahead and discuss chapter 1 regardless. When I talked about it with one of the participants (the Elem literacy coordinator) we thought it might motivate the kids to read the book as they had a pretty negative view of the book before reading it (and I have a pretty negative view of the book after reading it!). This turned out to be a good decision - it did motivate the class and they expressed a greater interest in reading the novel.
I gave them key questions to focus their observations on the group and when we finished, asked them to "turn and talk" (taken from Stephanie Harvey's work) through the questions before asking for their feedback to the whole class.
The questions were:
What do you think is the purpose of the book club?
Why do you think the book club achieves its purpose?
What did you see/hear that showed the book club working well?
What did you see/hear that did not work well?
Judging by the feedback I received, the book club model worked very well in motivating the class to read the novel and excited to start the process themselves (I didn't even get any gripes about the reading groups). They saw how talking about the chapter expanded each participant's view of what they had read and deepened their understanding of the novel.
Each group compiled a calendar of reading and meeting to discuss over the next three weeks and a set of ground rules for their group, both of which they submitted to me.
One of those great lessons that works as you want it to!
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