Book Clubs and inquiry Units

Book Clubs and Inquiry Units

            When I was in school I do not ever remember have a book club.  After reading the chapter and actually seeing it in practice in a Central Falls High School English class I would have to say that the idea and the practice makes sense.  This technique lets the students get more involved in the process of learning.  They can choose the books that are going to be read, it allows the students to give their opinions, to take notes without having to worry about grades,.  The teacher will walk around and look at what the students are doing, listening to the talking within each groups and guiding them in the discussion.  The students are the real teachers in these groups.  Daniels and Zemelman basically state that the process of taking notes and writing down of questions and ideas is to get a grade, it is to spur discussion (p.211) to let the students really tie what they are reading to the content of their subject.  There will be an assessment, but it really is based on participation and whether the note taking is done, not what is actually in the notes as that is what the student feels is important.  I also like the idea of roles in the book club.  Each student in the group takes a role that will change when there are new book clubs that way they won’t just be use to one job, they can become experienced in the other roles and they will be able to think in different ways while they are reading.  (p. 209).  I saw the roles used in a book club in a class at Central Falls.  The students were in groups discussing Frankenstein.   There was one student with a dictionary that would look up words the group didn’t know, there was one who was asking questions to the other members of the groups while the others were using the story to answer the questions posed.  They were prepared before the class started with the questions, so I assume there was some pre-work or homework done before the class to prepare for this lesson.  It seemed to work out well, there was great discussion in the groups, the students were taking notes and the teacher was walking around checking in on the groups and guiding them when they needed it.  It really was a great lesson.

            In chapter 10 we see that we need to connect learning with what the authors refer to as the “bigger issues of life.”  (p. 217)    Using inquiry units that encompass what is going on in the real world will just gain a student’s interest more.  Or even relating a lesson to something that might be going on in pop culture can spark the same interest.  Game of Thrones, an extremely successful book series, and HBO series, by George R. R. Martin, can be used as an example.  Having the students examine that fantasy world in an English class and see the shifting alliances, the confusion of war and intrigue, can prepare a student in a history class leaning about the alliance system in World War I that was so confusing that it actually was a cause of the war.  This could also be connected to issues in today’s world.  The alliance system in the Middle-East with ISIS and so on is also very confusing.  Now you are relating a reading from an English class, to discussing World War I in a History class, to going over current events in a Social Studies or Current Events class.   Having the two or three teachers create a project using this pop-culture element can help a student in studying something from one-hundred years ago.  This brings something that is fun and exciting to read into one class and use it in another to make what many students fell is boring, into something exciting.  (If you have not read any of the books yet, do they are an incredible read.)

            One more aspect I found interesting in this chapter is the idea of “backmapping.”  (p.218)  When creating a project the teacher just makes one that he or she knows will work, is interesting  and contains a lot of the their content matter.  Only then does the teacher go back and see what standards are met by the project.  In a sense it is similar to UbD.  The teacher starts with the outcome, to present a lot of content, and then looks back to see what goals and standards are met.  (pp. 218-219).  At the same time though, it is unlike UbD.  In UbD you start with the goal and the standards and then design the activities.  Here though you are setting a goal are getting content through an interesting activity and then seeing what standard it fits, in UbD you start with the standard.  It is an interesting dilemma.  So the question in these inquiry activities is how do you start?  With the goal in mind first, or with the interesting activity first?



Take read of the book.  It really is amazing to see the shifting of alliancesand politicla intrigue.  Imagine how that can be related to World War I, the alliances we see shfit in the Middle East over the years.  http://www.amazon.com/Game-Thrones-Song-Fire-Book/dp/0553593714 that is for the 1st book right now it is a series of five.  It is a long read, over 800 pages, but something that I think can be used in a class to explain many events in history.