Book Clubs

The kids were excited to start reading for their "Book Clubs" today. 

Which made ME excited, too. Excitement is exactly what I was going for!

I'm considering this a guided independent reading task, with the main focus just being to get students excited about our reading community! It's so tough to keep motivated at the end of the year, so it's nice to do something different. 

They are required to read from this book daily, with their only task being to take some notes as they read. They can record their reactions or questions or anything they think they'd like to talk about when their book club meets. 

I made them baggies filled with their book, a post it stack, and a brand spanking new mechanical pencil. 

At the end, each book club will meet with me during lunch to eat and discuss. I may bring in some dessert for us to enjoy during this time as well.  Their "ticket" to this book club is to fill out a Book Report poster I found here when they are finished reading their entire book. 

It's so tempting to print out reflections for them to do daily, questions for them to answer on each chapter, and the like. However, I know that my most favorite reading at that age was uninterrupted: allowing me a time to imagine, get lost, and enjoy the book world I was in at that moment. 

There will be time for testing review, close reads, and tiered assignments. But for today, we will just be readers. And we will get lost. And we will know that there's nothing else we'd rather be doing.