Scharber, Cassandra. "Online Book Clubs: Bridges Between Old and New Literacy Practices." Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy 52.5 (2009): 433-437.
Cassandra Scharber suggests the use of online book clubs in adolescent classrooms, which offer a great example on how to bridge the gap between old and new literacy practices. Book clubs that take place online appeal to student interest (students gave them an average "fun" rating of 4.5 out of 5)! Research shows that adolescents are spending less time reading for fun and much more time using technology, specifically the internet. Scharber studied summer online book clubs for teens and preteens that were set up through metropolitan libraries. These online book clubs encourage students to read for pleasure and provide an interact site for them to share ideas and opinions about books. Most of the online book clubs take place on Moodle (www.moodle.org), which is a free resource that provides and safe and secure place for children to discuss books. Online book clubs are already a hit in public libraries, and it is our job as teachers to bring them into the classroom setting.
Although this article is geared towards older readers and I am going to be teaching kindergarten, I found it fascinating and felt compelled to share! I love the way that online book clubs take a simple literacy technique that has been used for ages and modify it to fit the modern day world. Book clubs can be set up based on a certain book, genre, interest, boys/girls, grade level, etc. It also provides a neat opportunity to communicate with students outside your school, district, or even state. Similar to the social networking site Denise showed us in class, online book clubs could be set up with a class(es) from across the country. Overall, I love the idea of setting up online book clubs in your classroom, as well as the idea of bridging the gap between old and new literacy practices. Online book clubs are just one option, there are an endless number of other ways transforming the way we teach to appeal to students and keep up with the highly-driven technological world.
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I know Cassandra and this is a great article, that reports some interesting findings. I know it would be harder to set something up like this for younger students, there might be ways to at least discuss book online with students -- teacher directed probably.
ReplyDeleteAs I read this I agreed with the fact that it might be more difficult with younger readers. I thought of one idea that might help with this. As a grade level team, you could start a book club and share books your reading within the classroom with the other classes in your school. You could take a few minutes out of your day one/twice a week to read/respond/post new books that you've read. The whole group approach will allow you to model as well as have the students have input on what is posted on their class page.
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