Book Club for Middle School

This is a great resource that I came across at a summer conference... and have actually used (unlike so many resources we teachers pick up along the way). I read this guide book twice over the summer and used it to apply to the first book my middle school class would be reading. I began implementing my newly created lessons and book club framework on the first day of school. It's been great! The book has several chapters on general recommendations and then provides two very detailed units (Lowry's The Giver and a multi-book unit on civil rights). Using the general info and the specifics of these two units you can adapt the info to any book you might decide to teach. The back of the book has lots of "Think Sheets" that you will use when teaching your kids to facilitate their student-led book clubs. And did I mention that I teach students with behavior disorders in a special education class... and that these students are frequently 2-4 grade levels behind in reading? Even under these circumstances I found this book to be an engaging read & fun to implement.

I used this for a Library Science class in college and found it a wonderfully helpful book. For the class were were required to read many adolescent books and then use the Book Club Text as a guide on how to develop literature circles and lesson plans. I especially enjoyed the chapter on The Giver by Lois Lowry. Of course, I am relatively new to the teaching guide books, so there might be many other books that are even more helpful.