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Book Study Club

Facilitating learning is at the heart of our practice (Merriam, 93). It was such a

delight to facilitate as a future literacy leader to future literacy leaders. I assisted with

chapters 7 and 8 from Becoming a Literacy Leader: Supporting Learning and Change by

Jennifer Allen. This entire book provided such great advice and resources. Chapter 7

introduced a fluency awareness project and guidelines on how to pilot reform initiatives.

Topics such as using technology to support fluency instruction, videotaping, instructional

strategies, and layering texts to improve fluency were the main components of this

chapter. Chapter 8 was about support for assessment and discussed assessment

notebooks, preparing student materials, literacy team meetings, etc.

From the moment we first learned about this book study club, I knew that I

wanted to incorporate the use of visual images to help facilitate the discussions. I

especially enjoyed the save the last word for me strategy that we used in class for

reading response number #4. After much research, I found a variation of this strategy

online that used images instead of quotes (teacher toolkit). I felt this activity was best for

this particular reading of chapters 7 and 8 because the topics were familiar and finding

images that best represent each topic would not be too difficult. Plus, it would be fun and

bring out everyones creative side.

In preparation, I emailed my book club group immediately after Beths turn as

facilitator. At the end of her session, we had the opportunity to discuss next steps and I

announced that I would be sending an email with directions after our class. I used a

jigsaw approach and assigned specific pages to each group member. My directions
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included that they read both chapters, yet find 1-3 images for their assigned readings. At

this point I began to create a power point template to help guide our discussions. As I

received their images via e-mail, I began to add them to my slides. I was really excited

because I looked forward to our session and the interpretation of each image. I am

pleased that everyone responded and participated so well.

As I facilitated, I kept in mind the adult learners self-concept as presented by

Mark J. Kistler in Learners: Considerations for Education and Training. I wanted to

create a learning environment and experience that fulfilled everyones need to be seen

and treated as being capable of self-direction (Kistler, 29). The selected activity gave

everyone the opportunity to have their own moment with their assigned readings. It was

definitely more student-led as I made an effort to limit my own teacher talk. It wasnt

about me, but more so about them. I also gained a lot of insight from my group members

that facilitated prior to me as I learned so much from each and every one of them. They

set the overall tone for our sessions and I appreciated their hard work.

As a facilitator in a blackboard collaborate setting, I needed all the organization I

could get to ensure that my session ran as smooth as possible. Im glad that I decided to

create a power point as I feel that it truly saved me. Once I application shared I lost

access to blackboard. That was scary not being able to see any reactions from collaborate

such as a hand raise, a comment in the chat room, an emoji, and even the timer. It was

was very challenging. At that point I accepted that I couldnt change that technical

difficulty. It wouldve been worse if my power point didnt application share. However, I
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still wish I couldve seen life from the collaborate world. I was still pleased with the

overall turnout.

For the most part, our discussions ran smooth. As Beth shared in her feedback,

You put so much work into prepping our discussion so it flowed so beautifully. Thanks

Beth! There was a nice flow. Everyone participated and responded to each image with a

text-to-text or text-to-self connection. I used the order in which names appear in the

breakout rooms as a guide for each speaker to know when it was their turn.

Reflection is essential as I constantly strive to reflect and improve my practice. As

I reflected on my work, theres a few things I wish I couldve changed. First, not having

any technical difficulties wouldve been awesome! Next, I did assign myself a larger

selection of pages with the intent to model the save the last word for me strategy. I may

have taken a little extra time to do this and couldve modeled using less images. As a

result, I felt that I may have rushed some of the discussions as I feared that not everyone

would get a turn to share their images. Finally, not having the collaborate timer was a

challenge. I made an effort to set my phone timer as a backup and ended with 3 minutes

to reflect and plan for our next session. So that wasnt too bad.

David shared that he was, so impressed with how everyone brought a different

way of facilitating the dialogue each week and that well have to try book clubs at

school sometime!! I couldnt agree more. We each brought a different perspective and

style that kept the book club fresh and exciting! I loved the entire experience as I looked

forward to meeting with my book club group each week. Our group worked really well

together. I enjoyed every single session and learned so much from everyone. I felt that I
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could literally take any of the strategies they shared straight to my own classroom. That is

powerful! We couldnt have used a better resource than Becoming a Literacy Leader:

Supporting Learning and Change by Jennifer Allen for our first book study club. It is

such a wonderful tool and I am thrilled to own a copy. I look forward to sharing it. Who

knows, I may just start a book study club.

 REFERENCES

Merriam, Sharan B. (2008) Adult Learning Theory for the Twenty-First Century.

New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, 119, 93-98.

Kistler, Mark J.(2011) Considerations for Education and Training. ACTE, 29-30

Save the Last Word for Me www.teachertoolkit.com

E-mails from David Yung and Beth Simmons