Book Club Projects

I always loved to read. I still do.

Back in school, we had to do book reports every month, probably from 2nd grade through 6th grade.

I always loved to read.

I always found the book reports tedious and pointless. They were always the same. Complete a written report, add an illustration, and hand it in.  In grade school, we created little folders with construction paper, glued the illustration on the front, stapled our writing inside.  In middle school it was fancier, with the clear plastic cover.

But no matter how you sliced it, it was always the same.
And for someone who loved reading, loved writing, and loved drawing........ even I didn't enjoy them. 

Which is why, while I'm an absolute advocate of reading, writing, and drawing, and I think "book reports" are a useful way to share good books with others...... the delivery method has been desperate for an overhaul.

Thanks to lots and lots of amazing teachers who share their ideas online and offline, I've continued to play with a variety of "report" methods. The three clips you see here are the "reports" for three different groups during our Economic Book Clubs.  I gave the class the freedom to choose any method to showcase their learnings from the book and sell it to another reader.  Three groups chose to do book trailers.  Two groups did plays (not shown for privacy reasons) and one group did a poster.  It was clear that the groups understood the stories, made the requested economic connections, practiced their discussion and presentation skills...... and more than that, enjoyed the end project nearly as much as the book!

Character Study

We are (supposed to be) using Oakland Schools Units of Study for Reading and Writing this year.  The idea behind said units is fantastic - they are aligned with common core, provide anchor charts and step by step lessons.  They go into minute details of what should be included, and how to deliver the instruction.

That's all the detail I'm going to go into about the units.  You can read into it as much or little as you'd like!

What I am going to share is the Character Study unit we did.  I really, really enjoyed this unit, and so did the Thinkers.

Working in partners, the kids read different books that had a strong lead character.  They set their page schedule in their work booklet, and used the mini lessons to learn more about characters and character development.  One thing was missing from the unit, though, and that was a culminating project.

Hence, the "wanted" posters were born.

Now, ideally, these posters were going to be blabberized, and then used as an AR trigger image so that anyone could "hear" the characters "speak" but alas, the flu took me, and we lost time.  Maybe next year.  The posters still turned out really neat, though!

Read. Aloud. A lot!

Like many elementary teachers, I read aloud to my class on a daily basis.  Sometimes, if they're persistent enough, and I'm feeling giving, I'll even read a little extra.  This request usually happens when I end the day's chapters on a cliff hanger.

Which I do.  A lot.  Hey, it's fun!

Anyway, one of the things that was a tug-of-war decision for me was using our read aloud as instructional, or using it for pure enjoyment.  I know that there are schools of thought that argue for each side, and both are very valid.  I've found that we do snack time during read aloud, giving the kids a few minutes to chat at the beginning before I start reading.

Once I start reading?  They're usually hooked. X Our Daily 5 CAFE board is right by my read aloud chair, which makes a great place for modeling some of the strategies that are on the board.  This helps with instruction in a very organic, natural way.  Most, if not all of our read alouds happen this way - me reading, using the ever-growing board of strategies, and the kids munching away until a cliff hanger leaves them slack jawed.

Something I started this year, though, is a project or activity AFTER read aloud.  This is a great place to bring in some of the Thinking Routines that we use in the district- my favorite for read aloud being chalk talk.

In this case, prior to our reading unit on character study, we did a mini character study using our read aloud and a chalk talk.  The kids went from poster to poster "talking" with their "chalk."  We did this a few times with the main characters in the story.  Then each group was given a poster to analyze, and they had to create a character sketch of just that character. I think it was kind of fun, and so did the kids!