Hi All

A few of us met this afternoon to discuss our groups and how things were going with the book club, in general. Overall, the opinion is that children seem to be excited and getting more interested in reading. However, some groups are more focused than others.

Sara's group is very motivated and focused. She mentioned that the kids had chosen roles for themselves and were enacting even as they read their lines - this, before she arrived at the session. Way to go!

The treasure hunt I had set up for my group during the last session went well, in that it got the kids excited. But it disrupted the reading quite a bit during the second half. They were more interested in finding the clues than reading the book to answer the clue questions. They were running around the class-room distracting Tia's group. Sorry! I thought it was a good idea, but...

Tia has had similar issues (not just during the last session:). Dagny also mentioned loss-of-focus as a problem and kids getting distracted when they had to listen to someone read. Zoraida and Anna seem to have had similar situations - not always though.

We thought it may be a good idea to ask Carrie if she could talk to the kids about this. I have sent her an e-mail, which I have forwarded to all of you. I have also mentioned the issue of misplaced books in the e-mail.

If you have any other comments or suggestions, please do post here or send an e-mail. Any and all feedback would be very useful.

Thanks

viji

Plan for this week - March 6th, 2009

Hi

The book my group has been reading is a mystery story (A to Z Mysteries) in which some kids go in search of counterfeiters. I had given them copies of the book at the end of the last session for them to finish reading at home. I am hoping they have had the time to do so. I was planning to set up a treasure hunt/mystery solving kind of game for the session this Friday. Clues are going to be based on questions about the book and the treasure will be fake money (as in the book). I am wondering when I can go in and place the clues inside the class room and how - without the kids knowing. Any suggestions - on the idea itself or on the planting of clues?

Thanks and see you all this Friday.

viji

thoughts on second club meeting

My biggest challenge this week was keeping the kids interested. We started reading Three Cups of Tea: the young readers' edition. We took turns reading aloud, breaking to discuss various points in the book (geography, what it feels like to be lost, experiences being in the wilderness, camping, etc). One challenge is finding copies of the book. The library has a wait list for it. I hate to ask parents to buy copies. I may buy four copies and donate them to the classroom. It is an excellent story, and according to Carrie, all over the AMI reading lists. We may explore starting a Pennies for Peace effort with the class after reading the book. The kids are very good readers and seem up to the challenge.

How were your experiences?
Dagny

Second Session - February 20th, 2009

Hi All

We just finished the second session of the reading club. Please feel free to share your thoughts, experiences and opinions.

My thoughts - Today's session was a little less chaotic than the first one - maybe because the book was chosen and we just had to read. A large part of the last session was spent in choosing books:)

The kids read through 3 full chapters. We stopped in between chapters to check to see if we were all in it - got them to draw a picture of one of the characters, walk like one of them, explain what they would do if put in a situation similar to the one in the book etc. For slightly more than half the session, we managed to keep order and attention. But, towards the last 15 minutes, it was a struggle to get people to listen. I am proud of the group, though. We are plugging away.

The plan is to make a play out of the book. Each one of them has chosen a character and will be enacting it out when we finish the book!

I feel it is turning out okay. Please do blog your take on things too.

Thanks

viji

Greetings all. The Reading Nook book club is off to a good start. It was very nice to see the kids respond and participate. I thought it would be a good idea to debrief so we could see what worked and what did not. If you have a minute, can you please post your thoughts and comments on the blog?

Thanks a ton for doing this.

viji

I requested this book from Verona library. Hopefully it will give us some more fun ideas.

http://www.kidsbookclubbook.com/

Hi everybody,

I'm trying to brainstorm about how I might lead tomorrow's book club session. (An afterthought that I am injecting... I want to talk about whether the kids LIKE to read. It is an assumption of mine that they do, but I think it's worth addressing up front)

• I was thinking of having the kids introduce themselves by telling us about a favorite character in a book they have read. Tell why they they like the character.
• We might explore what they want to get from Book Club (explore different kinds of prose, expand their vocabulary, find new favorite writers, become more comfortable reading aloud, explore acting/bringing a story to life, develop storytelling skills themselves, etc). Perhaps we will find common ground within the group to build upon.
• I think we will need to decide whether this is something they want to spend time on outside of school or keep it to a schooltime only effort.
• We will spend some time deciding on a name for our group and perhaps develop a group crest of sorts.
• we will create a list of activities that they find exciting. A Reading Nook "to-do list."

Viji, do you see this first meeting as pretty small group driven? I think that was what Carrie suggested, and we later discussed. Anybody have other ideas about how they will lead their first day? I'm with Sara. I'm a bit anxious about this. Never been in a teaching position per se. I like that this will translate into how I motivate my own kids. I don't think I do enough of that. There is always room for improvement!

Eager to hear other thoughts,
Dagny

Hi

I had talked to the person in the children's section of the Verona Public Library last week and she was open to the possbility of extended check-out of books for the reading club. We could also place a hold on copies in other libraries if we all decide to do the same book for each group.

I am planning to bring in some books I have that the kids may like, on Friday. If you would like to do so too, we can add that to the set of books Carrie already has and we could get started. If we do not have multiple copies right away, we could draw lots and get the groups to make their choice.

Do feel free to post your thoughts on this blog. Looking forward to Friday.

viji

• Reading Program – some thoughts
  
  
  Start with a teacher’s evaluation of skill level. Form groups of kids – decide on whether we want mixed skill levels in a group or similar skill levels in a group.
  This was done today. Here are the groups
  1. Tia’s group – Kasey, Niko, Christopher and Hannah
  2. Sara’s group – Kiva, Eve, Michael and Vivek
  3. Dagny’s group – Emma, Kaycie B, Ryan and Akhil
  4. Viji’s group – Sophia, Abi, Jonah and Esteban
  5. Susan’s group – Lillian, Simone, Jack and Sage
  6. ? Group – Kings, Sam, Cole and Nithin
  7. ? Group – Caherine, McKenna, Elliot and Josiah

The last two groups have not been assigned a parent yet. We have four other parent volunteers.

• Simple exercises –this works for most kids: advanced or basic, but best for early reader
• Ice breaker exercises – introductions, without using words (Carrie’s idea) etc.
• Story building from pictures – pick or create a picture of some scene and get the kids to make a story about it.
• Story building game. Each kid gets to make a sentence of the story.

Book lists – discuss favorite books kids have already read

• Pick their favorite character– identify characters you like
• Describe the character – their understanding of the character
• Read the book in their voice/mannerisms etc.
• For early readers, as a warm up, we can do reading of simple stories, rhymes, songs in multiple voices

Pick a book all kids in the group can agree on

• Read a page/chapter at a time
• Play tag – choose the next reader and suggest a voice
• Write down words that are new – at the end of the session, look up dictionary for meanings of those words

Finish a book – follow-up exercises

• Character changes
• Be the author
• Figure out motivations
• Suggested exercises from the internet

Final presentation – choose a play or story which everyone gets to read aloud in front of teachers, classmates and maybe (?) parents

There are a lot of books in the room downstairs at school. We can pick from those, books that you would like to bring from home, library etc…

Hi all. Thought it would be nice to have a place to share ideas, thoughts and concerns and discuss things before the reading club meets. The address is readingnookclub@blogspot.com. I hope this will be useful.

viji