Get Started with Book Clubs in the Classroom!

Want to make classroom book clubs a part of your literacy block but don’t know where to start? This post has got you covered!

Book clubs play a tremendous role in my instruction. They are highly motivating, social, fluid, adaptable, highly engaging AND allow me to embed a huge chunk of our ELA curriculum into them. Plus, they are FUN and JOYFUL to implement once you figure out what works with your class.

It’s a win-win on all sides.

Why is Participation in a Book Club a Valuable Learning Tool?

Reading is essential for learning! The more students read, the more they grow as thinkers and learners.
Through discussion and connection, students are able to talk about what they read, develop new ideas, and enhance their understanding. Learning through various perspectives changes the way they see the world and themselves.
As students process and interpret the perspectives and opinions of their peers, they develop critical thinking skills and deeper engagement with stories.
Book clubs encourage teamwork and foster active listening skills.
Book clubs create a sense of community around books.
Book clubs expose students to a variety of authors, genres, characters, and adventures they otherwise may not experience.
Above all, book clubs promote a love of literature and motivate students to read MORE.

positive reading experiences = desire to read = more reading!

The Purpose of Book Clubs

To allow students opportunities to TALK about the book.
To motivate students to READ MORE.
To provide students with POSITIVE reading experiences.

Now that that you know the WHY behind book clubs and the important purpose they serve, let’s cut to the HOW. Implementing book clubs takes patience, time, and a lot of trial-and-error, but if you keep the WHY in mind at all times you’ll find that it’s worth the extra effort 100 times over!

First up: Decide Upon a Model

Which model you choose depends on how much time you’re able to devote to book clubs each day.

Model 1: Rotation

This model is best for teachers who see the same students all day/every day and have at least 20-30 minutes per day to devote to book clubs. It is also very much a one-stop shop when it comes to reading instruction. Students are focusing on applying skills learned in mini-lessons by reading independently, reading in a small group, and writing about those skills in varying modalities.

The rotation model includes four very simple, stream-lined stations:

#1: Independent reading: Students choose a spot to read their book club books independently and focus on at least one reading skill. For example, if your weekly focus skill is cause and effect, then they would keep an eye out for a cause and effect relationship in their book club book and put a sticky note on it.

Read with the teacher: After reading independently, students rotate to read with you at a common area. This could be a kidney-shaped table, a rug, or a special book club clubhouse. They bring their books, their notebooks, and their sticky notes. Students share sticky notes and ask any questions. Teacher leads discussion about what’s happening in the book but keeps it casual and light. I will go into depth on this station in a later blog post, but since I promised to keep it short and sweet let’s move along.

Journal: Students pull out their journals and write something. Anything. Here are some basic ideas:

Draw and label a memorable scene.
Who is your favorite character? Describe him/her.
Summarize the chapter using only the most important
parts.
Make up a new character. How would he/she change the story?
What do you predict will happen next?
Can you make a text-to-self connection to the story?
Jot down an example of descriptive language.
Illustrate your visualization of a favorite scene.

For upper elementary students, I have them write me a simple letter in their journals. It might sound something like this:

Dear Mrs. R.,

So many terrible things are happening in The Bad Beginning right now. Poor Violet, Klaus, and Sunny have to sleep on the floor and do all the hard work around Count Olaf’s house. AND after they spent all day cooking dinner for his creepy group of friends, he refused to eat it because it wasn’t steak! He’s just the worst! I think (hope) they’re going to run away to Justice Strauss’s house.

Your #1 Reader,

Penelope

Short, sweet, simple and to the point. I can tell she has a clear understanding of what she’s reading and that she’s also able to naturally apply our current skill of predicting.

When I write her back, it might look something like this:

Dear #1 Reader,

Isn’t Count Olaf just despicable? I’m hoping your predication is correct, but I have a strong suspicion that things are going to get worse for the Baudelaire orphans before they get better. Keep up the magnificent reading! I’m so proud of your progress!

Yours in reading,

Mrs. R.

**Apply sticker or emoji face drawing or whatever else your students are into on page to make it something they really look forward to reading and responding to. I also allow students to use gel pens or feather pens or whatever special writing utensil their little hearts desire to write their letters so they feel fun and authentic instead of another writing chore.

#2: Technology Component: When first getting started with book clubs, I always recommend making this station something that is already very familiar to students. Nothing will drive you to drinking at night like troubleshooting tech issues when you’re first getting book clubs off the ground.

So with that being said, here are some techie ideas to introduce once your book clubs are well underway:

Listen to audiobooks. Any. All. The more the better.
Craft emails to other book club members asking questions about the book, summarizing, here’s the effect- can you guess the cause, that sort of thing.
Start a book blog using Edublogs or Kidblog.
Create a digital poster using Canva.
Make a book trailer using PowerPoint or sign up for a free Animoto classroom account!
Pose questions on Padlet to other book club members.

Please allow me to interject here with an important reminder of our WHY :

The purpose of book clubs is to motivate and build a strong community of readers.

Henceforth, computer stations should be used for authentic reading-writing purposes only. So by all things holy please resist the urge to assign comprehension questions (i.e. Reading Counts or AR) or to require some sort of digital version of a book report. I’ve been in the field for a good while and I can tell you with conviction that nothing’s gonna quash a kid’s love of reading like a doggone book report or AR test.

Amen and onward.

Each rotation takes about 10-15 minutes, depending on how much time you’re able to spend. Here’s what the rotation looks like:

Independent reading —> Read with the teacher —> Reader’s response —> Computers

All classrooms are different so by all means adapt this to fit your needs! I’ve spent many years tweaking and reworking book clubs into something that works for my classroom, so don’t be afraid to make changes!

An example of Model #1 in action. Click below to download the FREE editable PowerPoint; simply switch out the book images and tasks to fit your classroom!

Download editable powerpoint here!

Model 2: Whole class

This model is for a teacher who may teach reading to more than one group of students during the day and already has a separate block of time for writing and small-group instruction. It’s relatively quick and way easier to implement than the rotation model because it’s not designed for instruction. Rather, it’s meant to build reading community, reading stamina, and a deeper connection to the books. In a largish nutshell, everyone gets into their book club groups and reads their designated books for a certain amount of time at the same time. While they are reading, the teacher circulates, plopping down next to students to ask casual questions such as, “What’s happening right now?” or “Which character has surprised you the most so far?”

When time is up, students discuss. Some teachers assign each student a role, some teachers pose a discussion topic on the board, some allow students to come up with their own questions. But remember, the overall goal of the whole class model is to motivate, communicate, and provide an authentic reading environment. Read here sis (or bro): That means no comprehension questions or assignments shall be imposed upon readers!

Next in Line: Setting Up

Build anticipation by distributing book surveys, designing a new “coming soon” book club bulletin board, placing book club books on display, or just talking about it!
Where to get these book club books, you might ask? Click on the image below!

How you determine your book club groups is up to you. You can group kids by reading level, interest, personality type—just go with whatever works best for your classroom in the moment, as you’ll most likely tweak it and move kids around as the year progresses. The beauty is in the flexibility.

It’s uber important that you allow students to choose their own book club books! Stifle the urge to micromanage their selections because allowing freedom of choice is what makes book clubs so successful in building a reading community and creating lifelong readers. Book talk tons of choices and then grant them the power to choose.

Designate a space for each book club to meet. Allow them to create and hang posters with their book club names, create reading forts or clubhouses (that are easy to disassemble and store), and come up with common reading goals.

As with all aspects of classroom life, set forth very clear expectations before getting started. Explain to students what the goals of book clubs are and allow them to help construct a list of expected behaviors. And don’t forget to model the bejeezus out of what you expect to see and hear before releasing them off to their clubs.

Finally: Decide upon a form of accountability

Yes, our ultimate goal is to model real book club culture, but let’s be real: depending on what type of school you work at some sort of accountability is necessary. Here are a few ideas on how to keep your students accountable in authentic reader-writer ways:

Journaling: This lends itself well to Book Club Model #1 but can also be an informal way to begin or end any type of book club time.

Sticky notes: Give each student a stack of stickies and allow them to jot their thoughts, pose questions, or (if part of your instruction) illuminate a particular reading skill found in the text. House stickies in a Super Sticky House to either turn in or bring to book club meetings. Click on image to download a copy of my Super Sticky Houses that you can 3-hole punch and place in a reading binder or paste into an interactive notebook.

Technology: Blog posts, book trailers, emails, Glogs, discussion threads; all can be printed out and submitted as a form of assessment.

As you might have gathered, these are just the bare essentials to get your brain whirring. If you’re looking to dive a bit deeper I highly recommend the book Breathing New Life into Book Clubs by Sonja Cherry-Paul and Dana Johansen. Also feel free to drop a question below in the comments! I’d love to talk book clubs with you!

yours in reading,
rawley

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