Book Club Self-Evaluation Rubric

Name:

Book Club Self-Evaluation Form

1 = Not At All            2 = A little           3 = Often/Mostly            4 = Exceeding

Book Club Name: ________________________________________   Date: ___________________

Student Evaluation:

Name of Student:
Came Prepared
Was On-Task
Participated Actively
Was Respectful and Polite

Discussion Evaluation:

We stayed on one idea and built on it by responding, agreeing, disagreeing, and adding on
We asked deep questions that sparked good conversation
We asked clarifying questions when we were confused
We challenged each other to support our ideas with evidence
We developed theories about the book together
The conversation was natural (we didn’t just go around the circle)

What was the highlight of your book club today?

What is your goal for your next meeting?

Launching Student-Led Book Clubs

For about a month after our class discussion about what had made the book club conversation in the video so good, my class was swept up in our social studies expedition on multiple perspectives in the American Revolution. Intensive research, expository writing, and art and music integration eclipsed read alouds and small reading groups in our schedule. All of this culminated in the school's Exposition of Student Learning at the end of January, after which we all breathed a sigh of relief.

In the past two weeks, we have returned to our regular schedule, and begun preparing for the launch of student-led historical fiction book clubs. I introduced students to the idea that unlike last year, when I facilitated all the book clubs, this year they would often be meeting independently. They would be in charge of leading the conversation, deciding on the work they expected each group member to do, and ensuring that their conversations led them to deeper understandings of their books. Students discussed their hopes and worries: many talked about their excitement about this new level of independence (Creating group names! Making their own rules! Choosing their own books!). They also brought up their fears that some people would monopolize the conversation while others might not participate at all, that the group would argue over books and assignments, and that people wouldn't come prepared. Without my prompting, they naturally moved from this discussion of fears into brainstorming strategies to ensure the book clubs' success. This was exciting to me; I felt like the fact that they weren't waiting for me to provide answers indicated their investment in these book clubs.

My inquiry explores how I can raise the level of discourse in students' talk about reading, primarily through student-led book club conversations. The reality is that launching student-led book clubs requires a huge amount of thought and preparation. In the following posts, I'll include some of the materials I've created to support these book clubs. The items on the rubric for evaluating the book club discussions will double as my indicators of success, by which I'll track growth in my focal students over time.

"What made that conversation good?"

The following chart was the result of a whole-class conversation about what made the book club conversation in the Teachers College video so good:

I later adapted the chart into a rubric that students would use to self-assess their book club conversations, and which I would use to evaluate and coach them.

Great video models of high-level student discussions

Here's the link to some videos from the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project:

http://readingandwritingproject.com/resources/common-core-standards/ccs-videos.html

I used the fifth video on the page, which has this description:
Title: Book Club Conversation meeting Common Core expectations
Synopsis: A video of a fifth grade book club from PS 6 engaging in accountable talk around historical fiction at grade-level text complexity. You’ll notice their high level comprehension and interpretation of the text as they discuss theme, metaphors, symbolism, and move to speak across texts.

12/11/12 Think Sheet: Indicators of Success

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1.     What is the focus of your inquiry and why is this important to you?

What would it take to raise the level of discourse in students’ talk about reading? Students’ oral language development is hugely important, especially for my majority ELL student population. So often I see my kids simply retelling what they read when they talk with their peers about their reading, or engaging in “parallel talk” where they’re not really listening or engaging with each other. The quality of their ideas stays low, because they’re not working together to build stronger thinking. I was inspired by a video of a 5^th grade student book club from the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, in which students were engaging with each other about the ideas in the book at an incredibly deep level.

2.     What classroom data are you planning to use for your routine data source to see how students are (or are not) progressing towards this goal? 

 Field notes and/or video from whole class discussions and book clubs.

3.     Take some time to look at the routine data source for 1-2 focal students.  What would indicate if a student was successful? What were you hoping to see? 

- Over the course of the discussion, students develop high-level ideas: students move beyond summarizing to higher levels of critical analysis

- Students stay on one idea, collectively building on and developing it

- Students embrace disagreement as a way to push their own thinking

- Students engage in the discussion with energy and enthusiasm

- Students consistently refer back to the text to provide support for their ideas

4.     At the end of the year what is the learning goalthat you would like your focal students to reach? 

Students will be able to engage in critical discourse with each other around texts

“The next steps I am going to take are  ….”

I'd like to use the chart that my students made after watching the video to create a rubric that we can use to assess discussions. It would be great to start using this rubric regularly after each whole-class discussion, and to have students ultimately use it to assess their book club discussions. I think it will be really powerful to have the rubric come out of the students' own observations.

12/10/12 Whole-Class Discussion Field Notes

Whole Class Discussion: The Tiger Rising

12/10/12

Field Notes

Me: How is Rob changing, based on what we just read?

Angel M: Before, he didn’t want to set the tiger free, but now he keeps asking questions of Willie Mae, and now he wants to set it free.

Alexxa: [signaling that she has something to add on] I forgot

Abel: He’s opening his suitcase little by little, especially when Sistine and Willie Mae are around.

Gerardo: I respectfully disagree with Abel’s idea. When Sistine said those words to him, he just closed up.

Abel: Well yeah, he closed his suitcase, but at the end he opened it a little more.

Nathalie: I predict that Sistine only said those words when he wasn’t going to let the tiger go, but if Rob lets the tiger go, she’ll be happy.

Cesar: I agree to Gerardo, and I have something to add on. Something to add on is that as soon as Rob opens the cage to the tiger, Sistine will be nice again.

Jesus: I also agree with Nathalie. Sistine said all of those words to Rob so he’d let the tiger go.

[“Quiet connection” signals all around the class]

Phu: Wait, I’m confused. Is Rob going to let the tiger go or not?

Notes:

Students are sticking with the same idea, and building on each other’s thoughts, though sometimes in a repetitive and round about way. By the end of the discussion, they had co-constructed a strong theory about why Sistine had acted so out of character. They didn’t use textual evidence to support their thoughts, and they didn’t address the initial question in any depth. Nobody brought up a significant moment when Rob did something that he had never done before. They were able to sustain the conversation with no facilitation from me.

Questions: What would it take for them to dig even deeper, pulling apart parts of the text that they’re skimming past right now? How can we make the discussion less repetitive, so that each person’s contribution really builds on the last?

A breakthrough, and a dilemma

After a month and a half of studying character analysis in fiction, and explicit teaching about high-level conversations about texts, my students had a real breakthrough this week. It started when I showed them a video from the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project of fifth grade students in New York discussing "Bud, Not Buddy" in a student-led book club. My students were completely enthralled, and easily able to fill a sheet of chart paper afterward with a list of all the things the NYC kids did to make their discussion good. They especially loved how the students in the video stayed on one topic for a long time, and disagreed with each other in a heated way that was still respectful. It was so nice to get to show them such a clear example of where we're headed.

The next day, I taught a lesson on analyzing the recurring images and ideas in a text in order to better understand theme. Students were easily able to brainstorm a list of the recurring images in our class read aloud, "The Tiger Rising." I explained that those recurring images often symbolize something else, and asked them to think about what they might represent in "Tiger Rising." This led to a spontaneous whole-class discussion that was, hands down, the best I have ever heard them have. They were SO engaged, really listening and responding to each other, and sharing incredible ideas that led to this building excitement among all of them. At one point, one of my focal students got a huge grin on his face and jumped up and said, "The tiger is like Rob's feelings, and the cage is Rob keeping them all trapped inside....and Sistine has the key!!!!" The other students literally gasped. They didn't want to stop talking about it.

So they are definitely ready to begin book clubs. The problem is that our school's "Expo" is in several weeks, and the weeks before Expo are always completely consumed by getting ready for it. So it's going to be a tough time time to start book clubs.

This leaves me with a dilemma about my routine data source. I was planning that my data source would be regular video recordings of my focal students' book club, because I really want to capture the quality of the conversations that they're having on their own. I'm wondering what I could use in the meantime. The whole class discussions we have about the read aloud could work, though they're harder to document. I'd love ideas!