August: Summer is over, but the reading never stops!Starting a book club for teachers at your school can promote professional growth, collaboration and a love of reading by introducing new ideas without impacting the schedule. Whether you have been fortunate enough to sit back next to a pool, enjoy some light reading in the garden or under the moonlight from the top of a mountain for many of us, Summer is often a time to reflect, recharge and reinvigorate. For me, I do enjoy a new book. Back to school -- August is a time to pick a book for our professional reading groups. Last year, I picked up George Couros' Innovators' Mindset (for the third time). I picked Guy Claxton's The Future of Teaching and the Myths that Hold It Back this year-round. I will post my thoughts and reflections later in May when we near the end of the book group. Some of the others on the list and being read by my fantastic colleagues include:
I hope that some of these books prove helpful to you, and I would love to hear from you if you read one of them. What other books do you recommend for professional reading groups? Drop me a comment below. Thinking of starting your own book club?There are a few things to consider before you start your book club. What book or article will you choose to read? Will you involve the entire faculty or a small group of teachers? Where will you meet to discuss the book? How often will you all meet up?
Getting Started Select a book. A good place to start -- are you launching a new programme or initiative at school? We had a list of books available to us as a starting point. We were able to make suggestions too. A week later, our groups were established, books were acquired, and we were excited to collaborate over coffee (or tea!). Establish and Share a Schedule The next thing is to choose a start date and create a reading schedule for your chosen book or article. We used a three-week rolling schedule, grade-level/departmental time, professional goals and growth, and the book club. So we would meet every three weeks to discuss. All book club members need to be ready to discuss chapters or sections at the same time. While quick readers may read ahead, a schedule allows everyone to stay focused on the topics to be discussed for each online post. Meet up and discuss We meet up every third week to mull over the latest chapter. Using routines such as Sentence Phrase Word, we can engage with and make meaning from text with a particular focus on capturing the essence of the text. We also dig deeper into ideas with What makes you say? A powerful question that we weave into the discussion to push ourselves further -- and back up our assertions.
0 Comments
|