[MOSAIC] Book Clubs

[Kukonis at aol.com]

For me, book clubs and parent involvement  are a wonderfully rich  field to 
tap in first grade. I usually start book clubs by having parents  model with 
their typical book club members. Typically, I make  the book choice ...one that 
the parents have never read in a club  (but one that the kids and I have 
shared  in class...last year's  parent club modeled Where the Wild Things Are ) 
Then a  parent book club is hosted in our classroom just like at their houses. I  
set a table with fine china and desserts, provide a copy of the book for  
each parent, and the parents run with it. 
the kids and I fishbowl them and make observations much like Ardith  Davis 
Cole suggests in her book (title which escapes me as I'm typing) The kids  
notice oodles especially about the power of shared thinking & the social  learning 
that goes on. We have even videotaped those parent book clubs. From  that 
initial meeting i start teaching the procedural aspect of book clubs  focusing 
mostly on what the kids  observed in the fishbowl.
 
after we become more proficient with our own class book clubs we invite  
parents back to do book clubs with their kids in cooperative groups.... that  
perspective is wonderful..... early morning pj book clubs make it developmental  
as well as fun but there are more structured activities too.
 
Even later than that the children model a book club a la first  grade style 
for parents and the parents fishbowl us.... and they notice oodles  (esp. 
school culture and workshop formats... but also provide rich fodder for  student 
self and group assessment) 
 
After the parents learn from their kids how to record their thinking we  
usually do  more clubs..some where the books are scrolled and the threads  of 
everybody's thinking is documented on the scroll. Then we "jigsaw" pieces of  the 
text (story structure, theme , characterization whatever the reading  strategy 
or unit of study the class is  concentrating on) and share the  scrolls and 
the documentation.
 
It is a great way for little kids to be empowered ... a great way to  empower 
parents to work with their children as well. very much fun for the  teacher 
as well... a great community builder.