Online Book Club

After reading about Cindy’s creation of a Blog for her in-class book clubs that are the focus of her research (See her great book, The Book Club Companion: Fostering Strategic Readers in the Secondary Classroom
I’m thinking about creating a blog to continue a book club I started for my son and some classmates during middle school. They’ve moved on to high school and between rigorous academic and extra-curricular schedules, we’re having a difficult time meeting. Plus, it’s time to think about starting my daughter’s book club now that she’s in middle school. I’ll be inviting some of the high schoolers to join me as mentors for this middle school group.

Our use of a blog would be different. The students in the classes that Cindy is working with will use the blog to extend their conversations beyond their in-class book club meetings. We would use the blog to actually hold the book club. It won’t be your traditional book club either. There may be times when we read the same book and post and comment–but I also can imagine posting and commenting on any books we’re reading for school or pleasure and see what happens with these conversations. A blog might not be the best tech format for this, but quite honestly, it’s the format I want them to experience. I really want them to experience the power of learning collaboratively from each other and the power of using writing to reflect on learning. I’ll keep you posted when I get things started.