My main objective every year is getting students to truly love learning. This is no easy task- and every year I have to take a leap of faith in to student led book groups. 

Our Literacy block is long- I dedicate a chunk to direct instruction but find it absolutely necessary to dedicate at least 20 minutes to these book clubs. And year after year, my students make tremendous gains. This year- and I kid you not- my class had a median iReady growth score over 271% with all students reaching their yearly expected growth goals and most student reaching their "stretch growth."

How did we do it?

I trusted them.

In my classroom book clubs are:

• Fun
• Engaging
• Student Led
• Driven by student choice
• A time for students to engage in often deep discussion.
• A time for me to informally check in with student groups and engage in conversation my self.
• A time purely dedicated to peak student interest in reading.

In my classroom book clubs are not:

• Formal assignments.
• Meant to be formally assessed.
• A time for me to force kids to answer surface level questions.
• A time bogged down by writing.

In the beginning of the year, I set students up for success with a whole group shared reading. I usually go with Frindle because it a high interest quick read that students find highly engaging. I teach them how to discuss the novels and we model what I want to see in book clubs. This first book is highly structured and loaded with direct instruction of the behaviors I want to see when I eventually release all control and trust the kids in their own book clubs.

Next, I put the kids into homogeneous book groups and offer a selection of independent reading level books for them to read. In this round, I meet with the groups twice a week and lead the discussion myself. I will sometimes assigning short writing assignments tied to the instruction we are learning in class. For example, if we are discussing character traits as a class, I will have them apply that learning by independently reading a section of the book, and then writing a short paragraph about the character traits of one character. For my lower groups, I might do this with them when we meet.

As the year goes on, I slowly release control with the end goal being I want this to look like an adult book group. The sole purpose being I want the kids to love  what they are reading and engage in conversation with their peers.

As the year goes on, I put together groups based on student interest- not level. Again, the purpose of these groups is to get kids to love reading. If a struggling reading wishes to join a book club with a book far beyond their independent reading level, I let them join that book club and support them with audio books.

I want my students to love reading. Cultivating a love for reading while also improving reading levels requires a delicate balance between skill practice and well... fun.

My first round of Book Club is done with my small guided reading groups. Each group is given a choice of books at their level, and we meet daily (with my higher groups every other day,) practicing various skills and engaging in book talks. Through these groups, I set the stage for more independent work and student led discussions. Throughout the series, we gather information to create a Dodecahedron Final Project   Throughout the years, I have created several novel study packets that end with a Dodecahedron as the final project.

The kids love these, and the final project is so great for display!

​

Teaching dialogue can be rough! I like to ease the pain by adding a little fun through comics!

Day 1
Teach the rules of Dialogue, using quotes, and proper punctuation.

​I like this free resource from Young Teacher Love

Day 2
Review when to begin a new paragraph.
This can be tough for kids... I had a hard time explaining it all until I stumbled upon PATS

Start a new paragraph when there is a change in
Place
Action
Time
Speaker

I take some time pointing out real examples from real books during our read aloud, I project a page to display and then do a slow read. Kids have a lot of fun explaining why the author started a new paragraph!

Day 3
Introduce the assignment with examples. 
On this day, I show the students a simple Peanuts comic. I explain how the story is told through the pictures as well as the dialogue. Together, we talk about inferences we can make about what happened before the comic, what might have happened in between each picture, and what each character must be thinking. From there, I show them an example written by me. 

At this point, I also have to explain perspective and point of view. I point out which character I am telling the story from or explain why I decided to tell it from third person point of view. I read the story out loud, each student has a copy of the comic as well as my writing. We go through and discuss descriptions of action I used, when I changed paragraphs and why, and how I incorporated the dialogue from my story into my comic.

Day 3 or 4 (depending on class and time.)
I then pass out comics to each student and let them get busy!

One of my favorite projects of the year is teaching idioms. To start, I simply print out sheets with an idiom written on the bottom and randomly pass them out to students. I then tell them to draw exactly what it says. The outcome is always great and leads to great discussion when we dive into Figurative Language!

​Check out the free resources here!

​

This activity is highly engaging and aligned to Common Core Standards

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.4.1 Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.4.2 Determine a theme of a story, drama, or poem from details in the text; summarize the text.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.4.3 Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., a character’s thoughts, words, or actions).

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RF.4.4c Use context to confirm or self-correct word recognition and understanding, rereading as necessary.

There are tons of different ways to run Literature Circles. Over the years, I have tried a lot of different methods but in the end I have had to do a lot of re-working and rebuilding to create something that fits my style, and my classes needs.

I group students according to Reading Level. I currently have a class of thirty-six. Of these, ten students receive some type of Reading Intervention. My Literature Circles run during a thirty minute block which includes Reading Interventions. I have six separate groups each composed of 4 or 5 kids.

Student's meet only once a week. Meetings are held on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Some class (or simply some groups) need less support than others and will only need light monitoring. Other groups may need the entire thirty minutes with a teacher guiding them through the meeting.

During the meetings, we discuss the student's weekly jobs, and share the work they have completed. Before coming to the meeting, every student must give themselves a grade and write a short rationale behind the grade they gave themselves. I ultimately decide on the grade but I find that this type of self grading keeps them accountable and assures that they are putting in their best effort that week. At the end of the meeting, after discussing everyone's jobs and thoughts on the reading, we collectively decide on the next week's assignments.

Groups that are not in a meeting are busy working and enjoying their book!

Download my Literature Circle Packet for free here