The Socratic Readers Guild
Reimagining book clubs in my classroom
When our school district announced that we would be required to teach reading and writing using a standardized literacy curriculum, I grieved. I knew from experience that when basal readers and workbooks enter the classroom, novels leave. Teachers are expected to spend 120+ minutes per day teaching from reading textbooks and have students complete set comprehension questions and writing prompts.
There is no time left in the day for reading an actual book.
Oftentimes, introducing a new curriculum means eliminating practices deemed superfluous. I’ve seen schools eliminate extra recess, genius hour, social-emotional (SEL) lessons, STEM, and silent reading, all in the name of teaching the curriculum “with fidelity.”
We were going to get rid of novel studies in order to teach this curriculum. When would students get time to read books? We could still plan for silent reading throughout the week. The reading textbooks included abridged excerpts from books such as The Secret Garden. These answers did not satisfy me.
I was pretty grumpy all summer thinking about how I would be forced to teach out of basal readers. I had just developed an annotated syllabus to try out with my students and parent community. I had fun creating my dream list of books that I would love to teach throughout the school year, including Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson and The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros.
For the last three years, my class participated in March Book Madness, a great reading bracket started in 2015 by two teachers, Tony Keefer and Scott Jones.
My students loved voting for each book after creating book trailers and campaigning for their favorites. I even bought students a copy of the winning book.
All of that would have to go in order to teach this new reading and writing curriculum.
The Choice
I spent the summer trying to figure out different ways to squeeze in a couple of novel studies throughout the year. Maybe we could cut out a few stories and read a book as a class? Maybe I could read aloud every day in place of having students read and discuss a novel in small groups?
I didn’t like any of these answers. I couldn’t add minutes to our day and I didn’t want to compromise the quality of a book study in order to squeeze it in. I needed to make a choice
When I put reading novels next to basal readers, the choice was clear. I decided to reclaim one day per week to do a book club. I didn’t want these book clubs to be ordinary. I wanted something unique and collaborative. I wanted students to feel a part of a professional, tight-knit group that held weekly meetings and had deep discussions about what they read. I wanted to design something analogous to Benjamin Franklin’s Junto Club. I wanted my students to see themselves as intellectuals. I wanted to form a guild.
I designed a logo and immediately set out to learn more about medieval guilds. I quickly realized that a medieval guild and a book club are not the same thing, but it didn’t matter; it sounded cool and I think my students would buy into the vibe.
We lucked out and received a class set of Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston. During our first week, students formed and named their individual guilds, designed their shields using core values, discussed group norms, and created a reading schedule. I wanted these to be student-led as much as possible, and the students loved the idea of running their own guilds.
The Socratic Readers Guild started strong! Students met each Wednesday to discuss what they read in the previous week. Since I dedicated one day per week for book club discussions, students didn’t feel the time pressure of trying to read and discuss during our literacy block.
I created a digital notebook for groups to use to capture their thinking and weekly discussions. I provided book club roles, some opening and closing book club activities, and discussion questions that students could use throughout the book. Everything was going great, until it wasn’t.
After a few weeks, I began noticing that groups were not gelling as before. Students were getting into fights over things not in the book; some students read ahead and spoiled plot details; some repeatedly did not read in preparation for their book club meeting, which made for sparse discussion. I couldn’t tell what was happening. Instead of spending Wednesdays floating between groups, listening to thoughtful chatter, I was mediating conflicts and disbanding a couple of the guilds.
After a month, I decided to dissolve all of the guilds and turn the book into a daily read-aloud. Many students still wanted to find out what happened at the end, so I couldn’t just abandon the entire learning experience. We finished the book as a class and I spent four weeks analyzing what went wrong so that I could tweak it and start again.
Alpha Phase with Generation Alpha
My Gen Alpha students have grown up with pervasive technology at their fingertips since they were toddlers. When they entered my classroom on the first day of school, I handed them a laptop. I noticed during our Socratic Readers Guild meetings, students were struggling to balance technology as a learning tool and technology for entertainment. Since not everyone read each week, student quickly lost interest in trying to have a book club discussion, and bored ten-year-olds do what bored kids have done for generations: talk to each other.
I also noticed that student struggled with the freedom and responsibility I gave them to run their own book clubs.
A lot of the school day is filled with oppressive expectations. Walking in a perfectly straight and silent line, transitioning at the sound of a bell, never getting up out of their seats, only speaking when spoken to; all of these are more compatible with the penal system than my hope for public education. I have always hated seeing completely silent students afraid to slouch in their chair for fear of getting in trouble.
Unfortunately, without a more structured format, my students struggled to say on task. When students came to book club unprepared, they held each other accountable, which often led to yelling, name-calling, and tears.
I had an epiphany. If student’ behaviors are controlled with authoritarian measures for 5 years, then, when they enter my classroom, and are allowed the freedom to be human, I understand why many can’t handle it. It’s too much after so long without.
Gradual Release
I’m not giving up on book clubs. In fact, as a grade-level team, we have decided to put the standardized reading curriculum on hold while we do fifth-grade book clubs. Since my students have already participated in the alpha phase of The Socratic Readers Guild (TSRG.v.1), I plan to restructure this next round of book clubs with a gradual release of privileges and freedoms (TSRG.v.2.0).
I plan to go old-school: nothing digital. We are going to resurrect their reading notebooks, dust them of, and use them as dialogic journals.
As much as I love the idea of students coming to class prepared to discuss their reading, I can’t design a learning experience around this assumption. So, all reading and discussing will be done in class. Day 1: we read Chapter 1 and discuss in small groups. Day 2: we read Chapter 2 and discuss in small groups. In fact, I may even whole-class discussions at the start and then gradually release them to their own, smaller groups, modeling my expectations for what a book club should look and sound like.
I will model annotating the text using depth and complexity icons. Students will be required to read and annotate throughout each chapter. These notes will be their entrance ticket to their group discussion. They can’t participate without their notes, and since we will be doing these in class, I’m hoping for much greater participation.
I will not only provide students with a note-taking structure, but a vocabulary note-catcher, and chapter journaling prompts. Students need practice reflecting on what they have read and discussed, and I’m hoping that if I model this practice, students will have deeper and more thoughtful discussions.
Any Suggestions?
Since there are a lot of educators who subscribe to this Subtack, I’d love some suggestions for making TSRG.v.2.0 more effective and a better learning experience for my students. What resources do you use for book clubs? I think it would be cool to somehow combine Socratic Seminars with book clubs. I’d appreciate any advice.
Please leave comments with suggestions and resources.
Thanks and have a great week!
—Adrian
Resources
Centering Student Voice and Choice: A Book Club Guide
You may have noticed that I linked to these Facing History resources. I love their pedagogical approach to student-led learning!
Check out this great resource for close reading by
. Luther teaches HS Lit, but I’m going to use this with my 5th graders.Check out
and ’s Substack:
How to Liven Up Your Socratic Seminar
There is a cool freebie for signing up.
How to use Book Clubs for Deeper Professional Learning
This article is written by John Spencer for educators and professional learning, but there is a lot I learned and applied to my students’ book clubs.
Here is John Spencer discussing how to design a Socratic Seminar.
As a high school history teacher, I have unrealized dreams of having lit circles in my classsrooms. I haven't yet been able to justify the time it would take to do them. However, I do have one class that always finishes work earlier than other classes so I'm taking the last 4-5 minutes of every period to read them Ruta Sepety's I MUST BETRAY YOU. I just read to them - no assignment, no expectations, just the joy of reading. It's been lovely :)