The book club was great! I probably ate around 9 cookies...could life get any better? I submit that it could not! Ok, but anyway, I really did enjoy the book club. All of the stories were interesting and the group had a lot of discussion going on. I found that the spirited discussion helped me to better understand the themes and issues presented in each of the stories, and because there were different viewpoints in some areas, there was also some great debating.
When it came to leading my group with Ayla...I think that we both had stuff that we saw in the story that we wanted to share, that in some ways, it was more like we were participating that leading. Not that participating in the discussion was wrong, but we probably could have done a better job of leading it. In the end, it was a fun experience, and I got snacks. :)
I really enjoyed class last week, because the webinar was great. It was nice to see how we are supposed to have our webinars work, and to have Bobbi Newman talk about the HCOD issue was really awesome. It was nice to hear how she feels about the whole debate, and how it will effect librarians and libraries in general.
I completely agree with you about getting a better idea of the themes and issues of our stories because of discussions. It was definitely a piece of evidence in support of book clubs at school (even at the higher grade levels).
ReplyDeleteI agree that it is hard not add too much to discussion when you are the leader. Chances are you have read the material more times and more thoroughly than the participants and because of that just have a lot to say. I think that is one time where being shy is a somewhat good thing.
ReplyDeleteIt was hard for me, too, not to share all the things I had been thinking about while reading our story (and, honestly, not to monopolize a bunch of the other discussions too--I took the "close reading" part very seriously and wish we could have talked about these stories for hours!). That teacher in the article we read about Socratic Seminars a couple of weeks ago probably had the same problem! I think really strong questions are one good way to get people talking about the themes you want to focus on, but I don't think there's anything wrong with participating in the discussion--you had lots of great insight and ideas to share! As long as the leader (and the participants) are open to perspectives other than their own, which didn't seem to be a problem in our discussions.
ReplyDelete*affect librarians.
ReplyDeleteMan, 5th comment in a row here on the book clubs and webinar. What new can I say? Yes, I haven't referenced the cookies yet. The cookies were awesome! And yes, the discussion was very spirited without getting personal, which was awesome. I'm for that.
What stories did you read? Any specific themes? I always love finding out info so I can see if it something that I want to read. I do love to read!
ReplyDeleteI second all of your sentiments re: leading book clubs and also cookies. We had the same issue with getting so caught up in the discussion that we had a hard time just letting it happen without butting in all the time.
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