From: lcote at newburyport.k12.ma.us <lcote>
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:08:31 -0400

Hi Karen and Rhonda,

I am not sure if you are still interested in a boys' book club, but here is some information I acquired while running a 5th grade boys only book club. It was one of the most rewarding things I ever did. The best part was that we were told that I wouldn't get enough interest by boys (I asked that they give up their lunch and recess 1 time a week to meet me in the library and eat their lunch and talk about the book with me). We were shocked when we had to shut off the sign up list at 11 boys, they were pounding down the door to get in.

In hindsight, 11 boys were too many. But it was still great. Choosing the book was critical. I wanted boys to know how to choose books that interested them. So, I narrowed it down to 3 books. The Wreckers, by Iain Lawrence, Among the Hidden, by Margaret Haddix, and Wringer by Jerry Spinelli. I first read the reviews from the School Library Journal for each paperback to the boys. I then choose boys to read a random page from each title. And finally, other boys read the back cover of each book. When this was complete, each boy voted on a piece of paper which title to read. Out of the 14 votes, 11 of them voted for Among the Hidden. We were on our way.

Now that our book had been chosen, we needed to decide how much to read of it each week. I had created bookmarks for the boys that I passed out. On the bookmarks I had the 5 dates that we would be meeting each week with a line after the date. As a group, we decided how many pages we could read in a week (it averaged about 40) and put the page number down on the date that we would be discussing our book. This was critical in keeping the boys all at the same page of the book. Granted some read ahead and some couldn't?t keep up, but it was a benchmark that we all agreed upon and we would agree to discuss only what had happened up to that specific point. I asked that 4 boys each week would write down at least two questions on the back of the bookmark while they were reading the book. These were used as starting points for our discussions. We rotated this assignment each week.

I thought we would only do 1 book, but the boys loved it so much we ended up also doing: Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan City of Embers by Jeanne Duprau and the sequels to the City of Embers...

I hope this helps, it was a great experience I would definitely recommend it. Be careful the group doesn't get too big, the boys tend to ALL like to participate.

All the best, Lynne Cote Librarian Francis T. Bresnahan Elementary School


---------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent from Newburyport Public Schools webmail program
Received on Wed 22 Jul 2009 01:08:31 PM CDT