This will be an opportunity for students sign up for a summer book club. They will begin June 12th for elementary and middle school, and begin July 10th for high school. All book clubs will end August 14th. The book clubs will be held virtually and meet via Zoom once a week for elementary and middle school, with bimonthly meetings for high school. The goal will be for students to get together and discuss the pieces of literature in an open and respectful space. The cost will be $80 per student to join a book club. Explore below to find out what books will be discussed this summer! 

Right now I am in the planning stage and hoping to get a good sense of how much interest there is. So please spread the word! The more sign ups there are the more likely that I can get this program running in time for the summer. 

Questions you may have

Are audiobooks okay?

Absolutely! Any way that is best for your learner to access the literature is fine by me. The goals of the books clubs is not necessarily to help your student get better at reading itself, but to build an appreciation and love of books in general. If you do have any wonders about helping your child with phonics and reading better please reach out to me at: kitzerow97@gmail.com.

What will the book club meetings look like?

Each book club will meeting via Zoom for an hour. Each book club will be facilitated by either myself or Heidi Williams. While there may be a few specific questions that are asked to start each meeting, the facilitator will have a very student and inquiry based goal. This means that for the large majority of the time, the readers will be choosing what to talk about. An example of a guiding question at each grade level might be:

Elementary: What did _____ do to solve the problem?

  What was your favorite part of the book? Why?

                                    Was there ever a time you also ___________?

Middle & School: Who was your favorite character from this chapter? Why?

    What do you think about character's choices in this chapter?

These questions are for one goal: to get the readers talking about the book. While schools do very well at talking about themes, metaphors, allegories, plot, etc., there is one thing they don't teach readers how do to. Just talk about the book to talk about it. While I as the facilitator am there to explain terminology, clear up any confusions about the plot, etc., I don't want these book clubs to be readers answering question after question because that's what is expected. They get enough of that sitting in a desk for seven hours a day during the school year. 

The second goal for the facilitator will be to hold the readers accountable for justifying their thoughts/ideas with evidence from the books. We won't have students simply stop at saying "I think ______.", but will push them to explain why and be able to point back to something from the book to support their claim. 

How many students per book club?

There will be a maximum of 10 students for each book club.