Book Club Revolution!

So a few of our boys found several copies of a book in the library today. They decided to each check-out a copy and start their own book club. (Ahh, music to a teacher's ears, right?)

I invited them to use a round of Daily 5 every few days to meet together to talk about their book. They were pretty excited, to say the least. When I let the rest of the class know about the book club the boys had started, the idea spread like wildfire!

Many students used a Daily 5 today to organize a book club of their own. Currently, we have three different book clubs, reading three different books, and several more students thinking about starting one this week.

As a class, we took a few minutes to set up some "ground rules," because while book clubs are fun and a powerful way to improve as a reader and learn from other readers, there are some stumbling blocks that can get in the way sometimes. Here are some of the things we decided on:

• It's a commitment. If you decide to join a book club, you are committing to read the book. Think carefully about your interest-level in the book before making the commitment.
• You don't have to be in a book club.
• It's not just a club. We must be extremely careful that people don't feel excluded, but also recognize that book clubs are normally rather small, 4-6 people usually.
• Set up a schedule.  Make sure the group knows what to read and when.
• Meet once or twice a week to talk about what's happening in the book.

Wow, it's an exciting time to be a third grader. Have your child let me know if he/she wants to be part of a book club, and I'll help to get one set up!

Book-Clubbers... UNITE!