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Community through Literature
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From: JuneCL at aol.com <JuneCL>
Date: Sat, 18 Oct 2003 13:41:18 EDT
Last year one of our teachers was concerned because she had a class with few girls and many outspoken boys. She and I talked about this and decided that I would organize a book group for some girls from all the classes at that grade level (third). This would give them a chance to be in a community with girls outside of their class.
The role that I tried to maintain was that of "suggester"--all decisions were theirs. We read some books together and talked about them, and they made all decisions for book choice and assignments. I noticed that one of the things that they really loved to do was to recommend books to each other, so I suggested that we publish a magazine of book reviews for the school. This was a great success. I taught them how to write a review, how to publish their reviews in a word processor, and how to use the scanner to scan book covers. At the beginning of this year, several of the girls came to me to ask about another book group. I suggested that they write an invitation for all fourth grade girls which they did immediately. I wish that I could attach it because it was so amazing. They copied it and distributed it to all the girls and made sign-up sheets for each class. We're now meeting during their lunch time and have a very large group. At the first meeting they made basic decisions about what we'll do and I am maintaining my "suggester" role. Someone wanted to read A Single Shard, but others quickly realized that it would be a difficult book for some of the group members. When I suggested that we might read different books by the same author, they accepted that as a worthy idea (they don't always!) and some members will be reading The Kite Fighters. They are a joy to work with, very responsive and in charge. After I made my author suggestion, several of them commented: "We can talk about the way the author writes," and "We can make connections between the two books." What fun for all of us, even if someone did spill their chocolate milk on a book! June Locke Librarian, Belle Sherman El. School Ithaca, NY
Received on Sat 18 Oct 2003 12:41:18 PM CDT
Date: Sat, 18 Oct 2003 13:41:18 EDT
Last year one of our teachers was concerned because she had a class with few girls and many outspoken boys. She and I talked about this and decided that I would organize a book group for some girls from all the classes at that grade level (third). This would give them a chance to be in a community with girls outside of their class.
The role that I tried to maintain was that of "suggester"--all decisions were theirs. We read some books together and talked about them, and they made all decisions for book choice and assignments. I noticed that one of the things that they really loved to do was to recommend books to each other, so I suggested that we publish a magazine of book reviews for the school. This was a great success. I taught them how to write a review, how to publish their reviews in a word processor, and how to use the scanner to scan book covers. At the beginning of this year, several of the girls came to me to ask about another book group. I suggested that they write an invitation for all fourth grade girls which they did immediately. I wish that I could attach it because it was so amazing. They copied it and distributed it to all the girls and made sign-up sheets for each class. We're now meeting during their lunch time and have a very large group. At the first meeting they made basic decisions about what we'll do and I am maintaining my "suggester" role. Someone wanted to read A Single Shard, but others quickly realized that it would be a difficult book for some of the group members. When I suggested that we might read different books by the same author, they accepted that as a worthy idea (they don't always!) and some members will be reading The Kite Fighters. They are a joy to work with, very responsive and in charge. After I made my author suggestion, several of them commented: "We can talk about the way the author writes," and "We can make connections between the two books." What fun for all of us, even if someone did spill their chocolate milk on a book! June Locke Librarian, Belle Sherman El. School Ithaca, NY
Received on Sat 18 Oct 2003 12:41:18 PM CDT
