As promised, I have re-invented the Book-in-a-Bag homework program. I hope that this change will a). encourage more students to complete the assignment every week and b). provide a more meaningful and challenging learning experience.
Book-in-a-Bag will now be known as (cue the trumpets)...BOOK-CLUB-IN-A-BAG!
Students will select a book (and they'll get a new bag) but this time there will be groups of students reading the same book. So each student will be in a "book club." They'll still have to complete the reading log, but with this new format they'll meet every week or two with their group to discuss what they've been reading. We'll also be using edmodo to have online "conversations" about the books. Also, at the end of each book, students will have to complete a project. (Imagine a book report like we used to do when we were kids...but with a Mr. Curran technology twist!)
I'll be starting this up by having kids pick their books tomorrow and then begin their reading on Monday. We'll have a record sheet for next week for parents to sign and students will be expected to contribute to the edmodo group every week. We'll try to have our first book club meetings the week of December 13. (I think the book club meetings should involve snacks, don't you? I'll be seeking donations for those coming up soon.)
If you have any questions about this, please let me know. The main things for you to know right now are that there WILL be a book coming home every night starting Monday and there WILL be a sheet to sign every night starting Monday.
I'm pretty excited about this and I think the students will enjoy it (and learn a lot) from it, too.
No comments:
Post a Comment