I know you read these as a kid! Flipping back and forth to make the story end in different ways. I used to love trying to read all the stories to make it end the way I thought it should. But can you do a book club with these types of books? That’s what we were wondering last year when we decided to order small text sets of the Interactive History You Choose series.
Today the experiment began. I started by book talking each of the books we had ordered. Four copies of seven titles total; each chosen primarily based on what we thought students would be most interested in. Topics ranged from the Harlem Renaissance to The Golden Age of Pirates. I passed them out very informally based on interest so that students could get started quickly. Then I charged them with the following;
- Decide how your group will go about reading these books.
- Decide how your group will best capture their thinking.
As I listened in I heard the students discussing the best way to go about trying to read and discuss. Several groups felt that they should just each choose their own path, then they could talk about it at their meeting. Other groups split into two sets of partners who would read together, then they would share with each other what they read. One group decided to sit and read as a group, and instead of jotting their thinking they would talk about the book as they read, then do some writing at the end of the book.
Overall the students seemed eager at the prospect of something new and excited to be in charge of making so many decisions for themselves. Tomorrow we’ll meet to talk about the type of thinking that they found themselves doing during reading, which I anticipate will be a really interesting conversation based on my observations.
Kristin
Katie
Inquiry Live in The Classroom 