Book Club Reflection

I think book clubs have the potential to greatly enhance student learning because they touch on so many different aspects of the learning process. They can encourage community-building, metacognitive thinking, and also convince students that reading is a worthwhile activity to pursue outside of school. The most obvious effect is that book clubs can help students decipher difficult text because as Schoenbach mentions, when students are “unfamiliar with the particular language structures and features of a text, their language-processing ability breaks down.” In many ways, book clubs can “demystify” reading because they can help “make the invisible visible.” I would argue that by publicly questioning and discussing the text, students can experience the reading process for themselves rather than listening to their instructor tell them that it is so. I also like to think that by accepting such questioning and confusion as the academic norm, students will become more comfortable asking questions and participating in future class discussions.

This was my first time participating in a book club assignment. While I had some issues with the collaboration process, I think the text itself was an excellent read.

I would do a couple of things differently with the collaboration process. Part of this was my fault; I was unable to attend the first meeting. While I did stay in contact with my group and exchanged ideas, I still felt like I had missed something. Exchanging information without the context is a lot like highlighted a few lines in a chapter without reading the rest. It’ll supply the main ideas and give you the overall gist of the text, but those highlights don’t explain how the conversation arrived at those ideas. In retrospect, I probably should have suggested to meet for an additional day outside of class. This is especially true given that my group spent so much time discussing how we were going to put our presentation together during the second meeting. It was an important meeting but I think we could have done that outside of class. I also learned something new regarding the social element of book clubs. Despite the fact that I knew most of my group (not personally but I knew two of the members from previous classes), I don't think it was an ideal environment. This may have stemmed from my exasperation with the said group members. We were constantly butting heads over what we considered to be the important ideas. It was exactly like Mary Louise Pratt's contact zones Kaufman & Torda mentioned: "students with different amounts of power and different kinds of stakes in the classroom and materials "meet, clash, and grapple with each other." I think half of my group saw Wilhelm’s book as a collection of unrelated chapters because they never seemed to realize the pursuit of engagement as the main idea that connected the chapters. I could very well be wrong but this was an observation purely based on our discussions. Kaufman & Torda also state that "book clubs call attention to the active processes of both reading and writing. Through overt sociality, independent reading journals, and collaborative writing projects…" but I can’t say that this book club assignment did the same for me. I think one of the reasons our assignment did none of the above (for me at least) was because there was little collaboration with the writing portion. I agreed to put the presentation together while another said she would organize our handout. When I put our group's presentation together, I fully expected some of my group members to adjust or add more information onto the parts that they saw fit. Then the discussion regarding what was important or what else to add could have taken place. Unfortunately, there was none of that.

The one thing I learned was that there is no guarantee that students will form beneficial relationships with their group members just because they know each other or they are put in the same group. I hate to admit it but I don't think I gave the same amount of respect they deserved. I tried my best to be collaborative, but I struggled to incorporate their input into my own analysis. They were hyper focusing on one activity or one idea that Wilhelm outlined. I spent much of time arguing that they were missing the overarching idea that gave way to those activities. Based on my previous experiences with them, and the fact that they seemed to have missed the main point of the book, I ended up ignoring much of what they had to say. I still don’t know whether they truly had missed the point or I was blinded by arrogance and assumed that I was right. If this happens in a graduate class, it will undoubtedly happen in an undergraduate class. I think students' preconceived notions towards their fellow students should not be underestimated. I would probably implement a simple community-building activity in an attempt to bring in some kind of mutual understanding and cooperation.

The material itself, however, was extremely useful. Wilhelm's ideas were essentially a how-to list of approaches teachers can take to help their students become engaged with the text. His views on expanded reader response and engagement were great. Wilhelm did not just supply a list of activities. He also provided an explanation of how his recommended activities were going to foster engagement. They resonated with many of the ideas found in Schoenbach's Reading Apprenticeship Framework. One of the most useful things about the book is that Appendix A outlines his entire Ten Dimensions of Reader Response. Each dimension is categorized as Evocative, Connective, or Reflective. Not only does he outline his definitions and provide a basic idea of what readers should be doing in each dimension, he supplies a series of questions and activities that teachers can use in their classrooms. I think this was one of the most useful features of his book. He argues for what many teacher-scholars are also pushing for today; he believes that teachers should be learning with their students. Teachers should be collaborators and mentors rather than lecturers.

If I were to teach a reading course, I would definitely incorporate a book club into the semester, but I was also mindful of the potential issues I might face. My first concern with reading assignments like book clubs is that I might select the wrong text. Given my lack of teaching experience, I don't think I have developed the necessary skills to properly gauge students’ reading levels. I could address this issue by having students select their own texts from a few that I have preselected, much like we did in class ourselves. Based on my experiences, I would add some type of journal assignment as well. I am also concerned that students may not form the kind of community that I want them to, but this is something out of my control. While I can’t force communities to form, I can help them with activities that encourage them to get to know one another.

  

In conclusion, despite my mistakes, I think book club assignments are worth doing. The benefits outweigh the potential roadblocks. And much of the reason why it didn't work as I expected was my own fault. But the fact that I had struggled to properly collaborate with my group members did serve as a reality check. There is a great deal of factors at play when collaborating in such group work and one can’t assume that it only occurs to other students. I think the important thing to remember is that no two classes are the same. The same assignment won’t work for every class. The one thing I have decided after going through my readings is that whatever the assignment, if it is failing to foster the right kind of learning environment that was originally intended, it’s better to move on.