Book Club

Book club has been a learning experience for me. This is new to me and I don't remember ever doing anything like book club way back when I was in grade school. We did more of the traditional book reports where we would read the book at home and then write a paper answering predetermined questions according to the teacher's specifications. I remember hating these book reports and not getting too much out of the whole process. Book club has the potential to be much more meaningful and beneficial to students than the book reports that I had to do. What I like most about book club is the versatility of the project for both the teacher and the students. Teachers can adjust the project by changing who is in what group or by having the students focus on a certain theme for a given week. The students can adjust the project by choosing from a number of different activities to express their thoughts and ideas each week. This is great because it puts the learning in the hands of the students and forces them to take a more active role in trying to comprehend what they are reading as they teach themselves about the book. Also, this choice is good for the students because it allows the students to pick an activity that they are passionate about, such as drawing about the book or connecting it to one's own life. This would have been good for me when I was in elementary school because I wouldn't have felt constricted and bored with the traditional book report. When I have my own classroom someday I will use book club over book reports because I feel that the most powerful learning for students happens when they have some control over how this learning takes place.