[CASL-L] Teen Book Clubs

[Cheryl Robertson]

Hi all,

I too am starting new book clubs this year.  Due to scheduling issues, I
have to keep the 7th and 8th grades separate.  My 7th-grade book club is
filled, but I'm struggling to lure the 8th graders.  Our clubs will meet
during our school's version of study hall, so everyone can attend.  While I
love the pizza idea and know it would work, I'm not allowed to have any
food.  Instead, I'm developing some trivia for the end of each club, and
I'll give out small prizes.  Cathy, what you accomplished was nothing short
of amazing.  Kudos!  I love the idea of gifting books to the kids and maybe
even inviting authors.  I will be applying for a grant.  In the meantime, I
have multiple copies of Nutmeg books, and I am borrowing collections from
Middletown (Thank you, CT Libraries!).  I thought I'd also mention our
Faculty & Staff Book Club.  I started it a few years ago.  We vote on a
book each month, we meet before school once a month, and I bake.  It's easy
and there's been a small, dedicated group of readers which varies depending
on the winning book.  Many people could not attend the morning session but
wanted to attend, so I approached my principal with the problem.  She's
actually giving us some time before/at the beginning of our faculty
meetings to meet so that everyone can participate.  Today is our first
meeting.  We read *Stolen Focus* by Johann Hari...a must-read for
librarians, parents, and teachers.  Actually, I think it's an important
book for anyone.  I'll continue to follow this thread; thank you, Matt!

Cheryl A. Robertson

Teacher Librarian, E.C. Adams Middle School


CURRENTLY READING

*We Solve Murders* by Richard Osman

*Boruto: Naruto Next Generations*, Vol 1 by Ukyo Kodachi

CURRENTLY LISTENING

*Fooled by Randomness* by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

RECENTLY FINISHED

*The Year of Less* by Cait Flanders

*Mixed Up* by Gordon Korman

*The Night Watchman* by Louise Erdich

*Tell Me Everything* by Elizabeth Strout

*Vanished *by James Ponti

*The Life Impossible* by Matt Haig

*American Born Chinese* by Gene Luen Yang

*When Stars Are Scattered* by Victoria Jamieson & Omar Mohamed

*The List of Things that Will Not Change *by Rebecca Stead

*The Housemaid Is Watching *by Freida McFadden


On Wed, Oct 9, 2024 at 9:42 AM Cathy Andronik via CASL-L <casl-l at mylist.net>
wrote:

> Matthew,
>
> My book club at Brien McMahon High School was, perhaps, one of a kind, but
> I learned a lot about book clubs from those kids.
>
> Do you have a cadre of students who hang out with you to talk about the
> books you and they are reading?  Tap into them as club members if they
> aren't already.  And if they aren't already because of the time the club
> meets, see if you can change the time to accommodate them.  After school,
> for instance, doesn't work in a school where the kids rely on buses to get
> home, or for a club where the members are also committed to other things
> like sports. It makes a HUGE difference.  We met during the lunch waves; I
> coordinated my work with teachers and classes around the book club
> schedule, as if it were a collaborative class in itself.  (Thank you, thank
> you, thank you, parents and the grant that allowed us to order pizzas--and
> the local pizza place that had multiple pies ready for us at 10:30 a.m.). I
> say all of this because some meetings I found myself able to sit back and
> let my library groupies run the discussions. It was a wonderful thing to
> witness. And when one of those kids said, "Did anyone else notice the tree
> symbolism? (and I hadn't even noticed the tree symbolism)" omg, my heart
> would grow three sizes.
>
> Are the kids reading the books?  Are you allowing enough time between
> meetings?  Are the books engaging?
>
> One thing I did (again, an idea I wish I could claim) was to get grants so
> students could keep their copies of the books.  It was a community with a
> lot of socioeconomic diversity, and I didn't want to choose who got a book
> and who had to borrow one from the library, so EVERYONE got his/her/their
> own book.  The kids LOVED this idea. Some showed me photos of the special
> bookshelf they'd created for book club books, or told me about family
> members who'd read them afterwards.  And it was bringing books into homes
> where, possibly, books were not commonplace.
>
> Do you use discussion-motivating activities?  I would sometimes find a fan
> site with artwork depicting the characters.  Or a video clip of something
> mentioned in the course of the book (for instance, with "Boy21," I found a
> clip of Sun Ra; for "Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock," a Bogart and Bacall
> scene--the kids had no idea who Humphrey Bogart or Lauren Bacall were, or
> what a romantic scene with real chemistry looked like in a '40s film).
> Even if it's tangential to the story, it sparks discussion.  There are also
> discussion questions online, and I've got a cool collection of generic
> questions (wish I could claim them as my own, but they were also online)
> I'd be happy to share.  If the discussion veered off into shows the book
> reminded the kids of, or other books, it was okay with me.  We usually
> finished our time answering, "What else are you reading?" Leave enough time
> for that!
>
> I sought out grants as often as I could, and sometimes used the $$ to
> bring in an author whose books the club had genuinely enjoyed, or to
> transport kids to an author festival (oh, I miss NYCTAF).  It encouraged
> participation and discussion--again, the interest could be tangential, but
> it kept the kids coming back meeting after meeting to see if they would be
> having lunch with an author that year.  (And yes, since they were funded by
> grants I'd done the footwork for, the author visits were tied into the book
> club, not a class; I invited classes, especially if the author was talking
> about the writing process, but classes were secondary.  You'd be
> surprised--or maybe not--at how hard it was to get high school teachers
> interested in having their kids meet a real, live, Printz-honor author.
> The book club kids, however . . . night and day.)
>
> How are you picking books?  I used the Nutmeg nominees as often as
> possible.  Yes, the kids wanted to choose the next read, and once a year I
> agreed, but I noticed that when the students picked the book the discussion
> fizzled quickly; they look for a different set of qualities than we adults
> do, and those qualities do not always encourage differences of opinion,
> necessary for lively discussion.
>
> I didn't start until the last couple of years of the club before I
> retired, but at the end of the year I let English teachers know which of
> their students had belonged and how many books we'd read, with a special
> comment about those kids who had driven the discussions. Some teachers did
> nothing with the information. Others gave a bit of extra credit, especially
> for those discussion-drivers.
>
> Can you tell that that club was my passion?  The kids noticed, and they
> responded.  In a school of 1700, we topped out at about 60 members the year
> I retired. It was one of the largest clubs in the school.  And while that
> number is how many names were on the roster, we generally had at least 35
> kids show up for each meeting (okay, there was pizza--but they then had to
> stay and listen to their classmates talk about books they didn't have to
> read), the majority actually participating by saying a word or two.
>
> Don't give up. It took me years to get the book club to a place where it
> ran itself.
>
> Cathy Andronik
> Retired, Brien McMahon HS
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Wednesday 9 October 2024 at 08:01:16 am GMT-4, Matthew Cadorette via
> CASL-L <casl-l at mylist.net> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Hi folks:
>
>
>
> School has started and so has my library book club.
>
>
>
> I’m never quite satisfied with our meetings and am looking for any ideas,
> suggestions, resources, or commiseration that anyone can offer.
>
>
>
> Has anyone found a way to help students talk about books that aren’t
> attached to a grade?
>
>
>
> Any help would be appreciated.
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Matt
>
>
>
> Matthew Cadorette
>
> Librarian
>
> Waterford High School
>
> 20 Rope Ferry Road
>
> Waterford, CT 06385
>
> (860) 437-6956
>
>
>
> Billy Pilgrim has become unstuck in time
>
>      Slaughterhouse 5, Kurt Vonnegut
>
>
>
>
>
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