 The
Book Club Game is a motivating board and card game played to build
and reinforce comprehension, communication, and a genuine love
for reading. Its research-based activities and strategies are aligned
with many of the California State Standards, developing them simultaneously.
These standards directly reflect the National Reading Panel’s
Research and recommendations for the most important focus needed
for effective reading instruction. For a detailed discussion about
the standards developed through The Book Club Game and The Book
Club Game Extension Activity Booklet please click here “Is
Aligned with the California State Standards Reflecting National
Research."
For a detailed description of the research-based strategies that
the book club employs please click here Research-based
Strategies and the Game. To see how the research done by the
National Reading Panel
is reflected in the strategies of The Book Club Game and The Book
Club Game Extension Booklet please read their recommendations at www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/nrp/findings.htm.
The
Book Club Game as well as The
Book Club Game Extension Activity Booklet offer the teacher
strategies that make reading come alive in a way that allows
participants a chance learn about themselves
and each other through the literature. Both the questions and the
book lists give teachers resources for their own teaching purposes
as well as for their students and parents. Students who internalize
the questions will maximize their comprehension and will become motivated
readers as they become aware of how relevant reading is to their
lives. The game can be played with any book, although reading the
book list books is another sure way to motivate reading as they are
great page- turners and knowing them helps the players win the game.
Some Ways The Book Club Game can be used in the classroom are:
- Comprehension building follow-up for a reading group story
- Comprehension building follow-up for a listening center
- Center Activity - a place where 2-4 children can go, read
a short book or story or use one read by the teacher
at another time and play the game
- Nonreader Comprehension Builder - for those who have just
listened to a story (building comprehension before actual
reading even begins)
- Homework and Involving Parents- A “Homework Privilege” to
involve parents and family in reading (assign a story for
all to read and play)
- As a Parent Resource-Parents appreciate copies of the both
questions to ask their children after viewing movies
and sharing books as well as book lists filled with books both
parents
and
children can enjoy together.
- Classroom Book Clubs - The book lists may be used for the
teacher to stock her/his library in multiples so that the
students may form their own “book clubs” in the classroom.
Groups can be actual reading groups. These book clubs can
extend into vacation
months so that students will continue to read.
- Diagnostic Tool - The game’s questions reveal knowledge
about students’ lives, passions, hobbies, likes and dislikes
that can drive the teacher’s choice of books to stock his/her
library with reflecting student interest. The game’s
book lists component will also reveal the authors that your
students
know, like,
or need exposure to as a starting point for suggesting books
to children and parents to read to their children. The questions
in the game
will give the teacher information regarding what areas of
comprehension his/her students are weak and strong in. This
information can
help drive instructional choices and modeling.
- Book Club Family Event - (A daytime classroom/school event
or an evening classroom or whole school event (Fundraiser)
- Families come, share a book and play The Book Club Game.
Teachers, parents,
and students get hands-on playing time to see how much
fun the
game is and all that it does. Participants leave with bookmarkers
of great
titles and a sampling of the questions to be asking themselves
(or their children) before, during, or after reading. (This
can be done
as a fundraiser where games may be purchased at the event
and money goes back to the school for each game sold.)
 Besides The Book Club Game there is also The Book Club Game Extension
Activity Booklet. The activity book is full of classroom activities
that extend or enhance the objectives of the game and are classroom
friendly. The activities include: Prediction and Vocabulary Cards
and Activities; Explanation and Application of Meta-cognition, Bloom’s
Taxonomy, and Story Elements and how The Book Club Game’s cards
are labeled to teach all three; A Question-Generating Guide; Different
sized Book Club Game Boards for classroom use; Reading Response Books;
Ways to use Puppets and Fun Ways to Spice Up Book Club Meetings.
Please click on The Book Club Game Extension Activity Booklet for
a detailed explanation of each mentioned part.
The Intermediate and High School Editions of The Book Club Game
offer an exciting alternative way to analyze the literature without
dissecting the story until it is unrecognizable. By allowing the
students to view literature at a higher level through a guided sharing
of perspectives based on differing paradigms a genuine love for reading
is developed. Students also reinforce and build communication skills
as the game mastery demands listening as well as speaking in within
a strategy that all are given equal time to do both. Please see Ordering
and /or Teen-Age-Adult Book Club Game (Bibliotherapy) for more details.
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