No Teachers Allowed: Student-Led Book Clubs Using QAR

1. No Teachers Allowed: Student-Led Book Clubs Using QAR Meredith Meyer

2. Lesson Plan: • Studentsread a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works. • Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding ofthe many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience. • Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound–letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics). • Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes. • Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.

3. Goals of lesson Plan: • -Have students draw own impressions on the book using the QAR (The Question-Answer Relationship) strategy. • -Learn how to sort questions (distinguishing between “in the book” and “in my head” questions) • -Develop a peer-led discussion using students’ questions

4. Original materials: • -Books or Print Outs Students to acquire the content decided by the teacher. -Handouts Directions to how to begin a peer-led discussion. • -Chart Paper/Outlines Places to graph data/write down content. • -Sticky Notes Place to write down questions. • -Presentation Board/Wall Area to place sticky notes.

5. Directions: • 1. Students read assigned articles (split the classroom so all students are not reading the same article) • 2. Have students write questions on the sticky notes and put them on the board/wall • 3. Allow students to pair up and fill out charts/handouts

6. ADDING constructivism: • As this activity is already very constructivist (with group talks and handouts), a great way to enhance its’ constructivism is to make the group talks a classroom discussion. The discussion would still be led by students and follow the handouts given out to the class. This type of discussion (like a ‘fishbowl’) would be more constructivist because the students would be able to share and relate the stories they read to their classmates. Making this a class activity versus small group discussions gives students the chance to hear new ideas from classmates they would not normally work with. This also allows students to open up and feel more confident speaking in front of a group instead of just two or three people.

7. Adding Technology: -To add technology to this activity, a webcam could be set up so two or more classrooms could talk about the book(s), to talk to the author, or to speak to someone of that culture of the book, etc. -An app could be invented to choose who speaks and what the student must touch on. There could be sections for categories and the teacher would plug in the options for those categories. For example, assign each student a number and for one category type in all the numbers. The next category would be “in the book” questions or “in my head” questions. The next category could maybe be comment on this characters, and list all the characters. The teacher would then click the ‘randomize’ button and a number, a choice of what question to ask, and a character would come up (Example: 13, “in my head” question, Dr. Robot). Student number 13 would have to ask an “in my head question” and comment on Dr. Robot to the class.

8. Webcam: • The purpose of the webcam would be to integrate culture and socialization among the students. Depending on what book they read, the teacher could use the webcam to talk to other classrooms, the author of the book, students or people from other cultures, etc. This would allow students to gain experience interacting with other scholarly people. The lesson plan hoped students would “build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment, to build an understanding of human experience,draw on their prior experience, adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language, participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members.” through this activity, which it does, especially using the webcam. The webcam enhances these lesson plan goals because students have the ability to directly reach out to others outside their classroom in a social and safe way. This approach is constructivist and includes technology as well.

9. App: • The app would function as a tool to get the conversation started, to allow everyone to talk, and makes sure that the students have read the book/are prepared for the discussion (in this case). This empowers the students to read and participate thoroughly as they know what will be expected of them.

10. New lesson plan:How is it better? My constructivist approach to change the group discussions to a class discussion increases the social aspect of learning as well as opening students up to people they would not normally work with. A class discussion allows people to practice speaking in front of a group of people versus two of their closest classmates. The added technology tools enhances the constructivist approach because they add more socialization and creativity to the classroom. The webcam allows students to reach out to different cultures or people related to the book. The app enforces students to read and participate thoroughly as they know what is expected of them. This technology adds value to the lesson as it allows students to dig deeper into the activity and adds variety to how content is presented.

11. bibliography: • Manning, Emily. "No Teachers Allowed: Student-Led Book Clubs Using QAR."Readwritethink.org. Readwritethink, n.d. Web. 19 Jan. 2014.