It is a BEAUTIFUL day here in Texas!! We haven't seen the sun in quite some time, just gloomy skies and rain, so we spent our morning outside at brunch and then on a nice long walk around the lake with the pups :)
I hope this post finds you all well...I have been keeping busy getting baby boy's nursery ready, getting back in the swing of first grade life after a wonderful winter break, and working hard to complete my new "Book Club Bundle" being sold in my TPT show now! :) Check it out!
We have been keeping busy in the classroom with book clubs! We attempted book clubs in first grade for the first time last year, with some hesitation on my part to be honest, and it went well! This year we did book clubs with non-fiction and the kiddos have LOVED it!!
We built up to book clubs by learning how to "write long" on a post-it and how to appropriately respond to the non-fiction literature. Students practiced writing a brief thought on their post it and then in their readers notebook they expanded or "wrote long" by giving examples/evidence and explaining. This took a lot of modeling during our IRA {Interactive Read Aloud} but with practice they got better and better each day!
We then moved into our book clubs. Students were divided up into groups, according to similar reading levels, and they were each assigned the same non fiction book. The kiddos were able to come up with a "team name" for their book club before we really dove in. These names were pretty awesome...ranging from "The Fabulous 4 Readers" to "The Fantastic Cheetos" to "The Wrecking Balls!" HA! I mean whatever gets them excited, right!?!?
After we had our team names picked out we made several anchor charts about what we wanted our room to look like/sound like during book club time. Then, thanks to some AMAZINGLY AWESOME, 2nd grade teachers at our school we watched video clips of book clubs put on by none other than those 2nd grade teachers. They videoed themselves doing a bad book club and then a good book club. We watched both, compared, and then made an anchor chart about it :) PS I truly feel these video clips made all the difference in the success of our book clubs. I was always able to reference back to it during a mid workshop teach and I even heard one little angel say "HEY! You're acting like a bad book club reader...let's fix that!" Woah, get em' kiddo!
After the videos and anchor charts, the groups met up and came up with a goal that they were going to focus on each time they met. I decided to post these on our "book club" wall so not only was I able to reference them when I was meeting with each group, but also to help hold them accountable. Here is a picture of our book club wall with all the groups and their goals, as well as the different anchor charts we made...
I saw students referencing this wall all the time! This was my first time to designate an entire area in our classroom to just book clubs, and I will definitely do it again. The organization and "go to" of it made life a little easier for everyone :)
After a couple days of practicing the students were getting really good! Look at "The 4 Cool Kids" below...SO prepared with their sticky notes...proud teacher moment!!
I mean really!?! COME ON! My students blow me away!!!!
ACCOUNTABILITY IDEAS:
*if students need help staying on track with their conversation don't forget to go by my TPT shop and download my "Book Club Bundle." In that bundle you will find prompt cards for books club in a fiction, non-fiction, or fairytale unit. You can easily print these cards out on cardstock, laminate, then whole punch & put on a ring for students to keep with them during book club. I let some of my groups use these and when they hit a dull point in conversation they pulled them out and it helped their conversation start flowing again... **if you download and need a specific card(s) made for your classroom don't hesitate to email me, I'd be happy to make it for you**
* if you need a way to hold students accountable while you are meeting with other groups, you can put an Ipad/tablet in the center of the group, just on the floor, and record. I did this with a couple groups that needed a little help just staying on task and it helped! I told students I would only hear their voices, no faces, and if they are being silly the Ipad would tell me ;)
Enjoy your Sunday ladies & gents and thanks for stopping by!!!
