I like how Katie Doherty Czerwinski focuses on the importance of Book Choice in her book Join the Club! Bringing Book Clubs into Middle School Classrooms.
One of the stumbling blocks I have encountered in the past is when logistics dictated that someone had to read a title that was not their first choice. This happened sometimes because of group size or an insufficient number of copies. There would be a student, here or there, that refused to read anything except that first choice.
These Obdurate Ones opted out of participating or contributed minimally to their group. They missed out on conversations, collaborations and the possible/ potential encounter with an amazing text. Yet they stood their ground. From those experiences long ago, I learned to make sure a classroom teacher had enough copies.
Part of me, deep down, acknowledged that need for choice. It is strange but Czerwinski's experiences about Book CLub book choice were nearly identical to mine. Although a member of two fabulous Books Clubs, the contrarian in me internally rails against having to read something I did not choose. Choice is important.
One of the stumbling blocks I have encountered in the past is when logistics dictated that someone had to read a title that was not their first choice. This happened sometimes because of group size or an insufficient number of copies. There would be a student, here or there, that refused to read anything except that first choice.
These Obdurate Ones opted out of participating or contributed minimally to their group. They missed out on conversations, collaborations and the possible/ potential encounter with an amazing text. Yet they stood their ground. From those experiences long ago, I learned to make sure a classroom teacher had enough copies.
Part of me, deep down, acknowledged that need for choice. It is strange but Czerwinski's experiences about Book CLub book choice were nearly identical to mine. Although a member of two fabulous Books Clubs, the contrarian in me internally rails against having to read something I did not choose. Choice is important.
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