On Friday, I had my son’s parent-teacher conference. I was really interested to learn more about what he’s doing in his second grade-reading group. He’s in a book club. He’s talked about how much he likes his book club, but I didn’t realize just how it worked. Book clubs aren’t just for adults. Regardless of your child’s reading ability, book clubs for children can help foster a lifetime love of reading.
At school, his teacher chooses a book that challenges the children at the appropriate level while proving them material for an interesting and interactive discussion. Sometimes she lets them have snacks during book club. This is a bug bonus with my son.
Here’s how it works: each child receives the book and a workbook. The workbook has a worksheet for each chapter. Each worksheet is the same; five squares with one of the following words (prediction, connection, words, summary and club question). As they read the book, they complete the worksheets for each chapter. The students write the information that corresponds with the appropriate word on yellow post-its that they place on the square on the worksheet. It was great to see the work my son had done. For example, in the word box, he had the word scepter and his club question was really well thought out.
Given that statistics current suggest that boys are at a disadvantage in academics compared to girls, I think it’s imperative that we as parents help our sons to develop a love for reading and school at a young age. A program such as this one puts a new spin on the traditional reading group.
I started thinking about how much my son enjoys his book club and thought why not do something like this over the summer as a mother / son or father / son book club with some friends? How much fun would that be?! Each month they could meet and have snacks and discuss the book together. It would be a wonderful bonding experience with your son and a nice opportunity to interact with his friends. They could use a similar worksheet – but as a review for the entire book verses for each chapter.
Organizing a summer boy’s book club would not only help the boys continue to read over the summer and maintain their skills, but it might help keep boredom at bay.
Here are a few additional resources for starting a book club and selecting the books:
