In my classroom, the students participate in book clubs. The groups are decided by the students voting on a book of their choice. I also group the students according to the genre of book they'd like to read or by the genre of book they need to read to complete the STAR Reader.
When students are grouped together I will create an organized handout that tells the students what book sections they are reading each week and who has specific jobs.
Each student will get a "job" that practices reading strategies outlined in the 5th Grade Utah Core Standards for Language Arts.
The students will be graded on:
The graphic organizer they fill out to prepare for the meeting.
The students will grade themselves on their participation and preparation for the group discussion.
The students will be grading themselves on their participation effort per week for participation in their book club groups, reading for the week, and comprehension (graphic organizer). The slideshow to the left is a guide for the students to follow during their discussions to help them learn how to discuss in a group.
The students can make this up by presenting to their small group again.