Instant Book Club – Plan for Easy Literature Circles – Print and Digital

Description

Looking for a low cost, easy-prep way to do book clubs with YOUR students? Planning book clubs or literature circles can be extremely time-consuming and frustrating. My goal is to help you simplify the process so you can get students reading, writing, and talking about books without stressful planning!

Use as a print resource, a digital resource, or a combination of the two for ultimate flexibility.

As a part of my balanced reading instruction, I do several rounds of book clubs every year. The focus is different for each, and how I organize each round varies as well.

One approach I like that is SUPER simple is to do “Book Buddies”—a simple pair (or trio at times!) that reads together, writes, together, and discusses together as they read a text. Although bigger groups are the norm, the accountability and engagement with pairs are so much higher—and very developmentally appropriate for third through fifth graders.

There is so much flexibility with this, and you can use it in so many ways. Check out a few…

• Use with a genre study (ex. historical fiction or realistic fiction)
• Use book clubs to work on specific skills (such as summarizing, discussion, character studies, theme, and more)
• Use one book with the entire class but break into pairs for work and discussion…or several novels where you let students self-select
• Choose books for groups based on ability…or interest…or needed skills
• Let students pick partners—or you pick them
• “Book talk” different books and let students rank their top picks to help you make groups that have engaged, motivated readers
• Consider choosing books with a “theme”—like social issues, character change, or even a topic such as bullying or friendship
• Read different books by the same author as part of an author study

The possibilities are endless!

Included:

• Print and digital access
• Tons of teaching tips and ideas
• Suggestions for use
• Scheduling hints and schedule templates
• “Tracking thinking” pages to easily help students record key elements as they read
• Reflection writing tasks to use at your description
• Character webbing pages
• Writing and discussion prompts to help writing and conversation flow
• And more!

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