Reflections on "Any Book" Clubs
After a couple of very successful student meetings in their "Any Book" Clubs, I already have observations and reflections that will guide future implementation of this idea.
First, it seems that having students commit to reading an entire book is pretty important. The students who chose novels were ready to share at each meeting because they had not wasted time thinking about which book they would share about. Instead of putting energy into choosing a book each couple of days, I think it would work best for students to choose a book that they want to read and commit to reading that entire book during their "Any Book" Club times. A few students who were underprepared tried to grab an easy picture book to offer some sort of text in a pinch. Supporting those children with the expectation the continue reading the same "good fit" book seems important. Each time students meet, having them give a brief update of what is going on in their book is helping the group care more about the text shared too.
Secondly, having student commit to a reading goal made the original Book Clubs more successful. This idea is easy to transfer into "Any Book" Club by simply having students record their goals for the next meeting and then evaluating whether or not they meet them, as they naturally did in their previous clubs when they were all reading the same book. I imagine that a simple book mark or tracking page where students can record and monitor their goals would work well. I will be testing something like this soon. I detest the idea of making students record every single bit of what they are doing and thinking when reading because it is so unnatural and leads to a quick resentment toward reading but a basic goal record like this would not take long at all to complete at each meeting.