Book Clubs!

My class and I completed our first Book Club as a whole group just before Spring Break. We read Roald Dahl's book, The Witches. We got a late start this year because I was out until Christmas on maternity leave. I am very excited to begin them again after Spring Break. I do what's called a book club book walk, in which I set out a variety of titles, 10 or more in a variety of levels and genres. Students walk around the room filling out a graphic organizer in which they rate the books based on how interested they are in each title. As they are walking around the room, the excitement is contagious! Once students have filled these out, I take the forms home and begin to put them into groups. This allows me to assign students to books they were interested in, while making sure the book is in each student's level, and that each group is a mix of students that will work well together. I feel very comfortable with the processI am using once the book get rolling... but still have some questions about assessment within the book clubs. I generally have students cme prepared to book clubs with some sort of completed graphic organizer or sticky notes. Then they respond after they have finished reading. I collect these and grade them using a rubric. Anyone else have suggestions on other ways to assess book clubs? What about the discussions?