Read and Reflect

Maree Carabott

Dee Clements is head of Glamorgan Campus, Geelong Grammar School and Sally Godinho works in the Department of Learning and Educational Development, Faculty of Education, University of Melbourne. Philosophically they both believe in importance of catering for individual differences, combine this with small group discussion the result is powerful model for the development of students’ conceptual thinking.

Read and Reflect further develops the model of “Book Club” which was originally developed by Dee and Sally in 1994 and published as Book Chat by Oxford University Press. Read and Reflect aspires to support the study of Literature while embracing the philosophies of Middle Years of Schooling.

The book is user friendly and logically set out. It begins with outlining the philosophy and objectives of the Book Club model. Central to this model is the role of the ‘the group leader’ whose role it is to scaffold discussions, guiding the student to become a reflective reader, exploring his or her thoughts through the model of small group discussion.

The Book Club model focuses on literature. The Literature has been divided into three sub-categories – Classic, Contemporary and Popular Literature. Read and Reflect provides the reader with concise explanations for setting up the program, grouping students, text selection, activities and assessment and evaluation.

The rationalisation of the role of the ‘group leader’ is detailed and to the point. Examples of approaches, such as Bloom’s Taxonomy, De Bono’s six thinking hats and Critical literacy, are provided to assist with the construction of questions for literature discussions. Blackline Masters and detailed activities for introducing and developing small group skills are provided. This book provides the group leader with a practical scaffold in which to support the student in their quest for the exploration of Literature; students are encouraged to hypothesise, question, discuss and debate.

Six thematic units of work are provided:

• BULLYING
• THE ENVIRONMENT
• INDIGENOUS PEOPLE
• INTERNATIONAL CONFLICT
• CHILDREN’S CLASSIC LETERATURE
• POPULAR LITERATURE

Each of these units provides: questions that are designed to guide small group discussion; a list of suggested texts ranging from challenging texts for the advanced reader to more supportive texts to encourage the emergent reader; activities; BLM and examples for self-assessment, teacher and student reflection and teacher-based assessment.

This resource embraces the Middle Years of Schooling philosophies and provides the reader with a practical scaffold, facilitating the provision and analysis of Literature discussions for critical and reflective readers.

FYI, journal of the School Library Association of Victoria

2003

Mary Ryan

This resource supports the study of literature in the middle years using an adult book club model of reflection and discussion. I think these strategies could also be used for younger students when discussing picture books.

It introduces the book club model, then outlines an introductory unit on building small group skills, which should be undertaken by anyone interested in these types of literature activities.

Six different units are outlined, including:

• Bullying: Who's Calling the Shots?
• The Environment: This is Our Earth
• Indigenous people: People of the Land
• International conflict: People and War
• Children's classic literature: Consider the Classics!
• Popular literature: So, What's Popular?

I found the questioning techniques to be appropriate for maximum participation of students, so the notion of teachers as the only knowledge-holders can be dispelled.

The inclusion of explicit teaching of small group skills is great, as we often mistakenly assume that children know how to work appropriately in small groups.

The authors acknowledge that teacher-developed units are more appropriate and create a more realistic context, so the units they have outlined in this text can be used as examples, then activities can be developed by teachers to be more relevant to their particular class and school community.

Ideas about suitable texts to use for such activities are also helpful.

Faculty of Education, University of Southern Queensland