Michigan Reading Association
March 13 & 15, 1999
M. Kehus (with Dr. L Pavonetti on 3/13/99), CIERA, Book Club Plus

Session Description

This session demonstrated how the Book Club program is being adapted to the middle school, with emphasis on text selection, student empowerment, facilitating good discussions, and integrating other curricular objectives within the Book Club framework.

I. What is Book Club?

Theoretical basis for Book Club (social constructivism, dialogic learning, language as tool, scaffolding)

Book Club Components

Reading

Writing

Share (Opening & Closing)

Book Club

II. Why Book Club in the middle school?

How do we engage adolescent readers in talk about literature?

How does Book Club match the needs of the adolescent?

III. Text Selection

IV. Example Units

The Giver: Conformity

The Pigman: Gender & Point of View

Civil Rights: To Kill a Mockingbird, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry, The Watsons Go To Birmingham ()

Missing May : Loss & Grieving (www.smplanet.com )

V. Middle School Book Club Issues

Themes

Response Options

Connecting Process Writing to Book Club: by genre (personal narrative) & by theme (conformity poem)

Grouping

Scheduling

Modeling (Fishbowls)

Into and Beyond Text

Crib Notes