The Book Club Companion: Fostering Strategic Readers in the Secondary Classroom

The Book Club Companion is a testament to what is possible when teachers think carefully about what they do. What we have here is not simply a guidebook to effective practice, but an experience in reflective practice. I hope that you find The Book Club Companion as powerful and provocative as I do.
- Peter Smagorinsky

Just because a book club meets during class time doesn't mean reading can't be fun. And just because reading is fun doesn't mean it can't help you meet curricular objectives. With The Book Club Companion you'll find out how the for-pleasure concept of book clubs can help students enjoy reading during the school day, and how you can use book clubs to immerse adolescents in literate, real-world behaviors as you connect them to the English curriculum.

Drawing on current literacy research and more than a decade's experiences with student book clubs in secondary classrooms, Cindy O'Donnell-Allen demonstrates how clubs can help adolescents become more willing, engaged, and strategic readers. Her comprehensive guide distinguishes book clubs from similar instructional techniques like literature circles and offers ideas for implementing clubs, using flexible grouping to meet student and curricular demands, and creating themed sets to offer students choice and you planning options. The Book Club Companion provides numerous resources to get in-class clubs started, keep them running, encourage student response, track discussion, and assess progress. It includes book lists arranged by grade level, reproducible assignment sheets, scoring guides, and tools for record keeping and teacher research.

Get into in-class book clubs. You'll motivate students to read, help them enjoy the experience, and give them an opportunity to become more reflective and accomplished readers as they share in the excitement of connecting the real world to the classroom.