I am attending the TCRWP Reading Institute this week. I was lucky enough to get into Donna Santman's advanced section, Reading Against the Grain: Teach Readers to Notice Bias, to Entertain a Variety of Perspectives, and to Question. This morning Donna described a time when years ago, she and some other teacher-researchers around the city had their students read from the same selection of books. When they had finished the books, the classes gathered in Central Park to meet in book clubs, have a picnic, and play. I love this story for two reasons. First, because it just sounds FUN. We teach our kids strategies for talking within partnerships and book clubs all year long- but I love this idea because it is really angled towards celebrating the joy of sharing conversation over literature. It's an authentic experience for the children; one that I'm sure those kids have never forgotten.
The other reason why I love this story is because it inspires new ideas for my classroom. I've learned how important it is to bridge the gap between the primary and secondary Discourse of our students. I have to admit that this has been a weakness in my teaching. Wouldn't it be great if we invited family members to join our book clubs? Parents, aunts, uncles, siblings, or cousins might read the same books as our students- and then join us for one or more sessions of club talk. I think kids would love this, and it would rally them around the excitement of sharing, and deepening thinking about texts through meaningful discussion.
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1 comment:
What great ideas! I wonder what types of books would be read and how to structure it so parents feel like participants with choice and ownership of the process.
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