I love the idea of having all my students read the same book and discuss it. The shared interest and excitement that comes from having book clubs in the classroom can mean only one thing: Learning is happening.
In my eighth-grade social studies classes, I like to add book clubs as a way of enhancing detailed information about history with nonfiction books. The books that work the best for me were written by Russell Freedman.
Mr. Freedman was a biographer who took many risks to tell the truth about circumstances in history. With at least 47 to choose from, his books are a clear choice for my book clubs. Most of them offer primary source images, interviews, and the type of background information that normally takes hours of research to find.
Starting with Images
One of the books that my students are very fond of is Freedman’s Immigrant Kids. This book is full of images and personal stories of people and families who immigrated to the United States during the late 1800s and early 1900s. The book talks about the good, bad, and ugly experiences of the children who immigrated to the United States in such a personal way that my students feel as though they know these kids. This allows students to learn about this time in history by using empathy to make personal connections with these real people they are reading about. In fact, my students feel a sense of relationship with these kids as they consider what they had to go through and their reactions to the experiences.
Instead of simply telling the story or having my students read about the time period of immigration, I use Immigrant Kids to make the time period real and approachable for them. I begin by giving some background information about Russell Freedman, his life, and his purpose in creating these books to tell the stories of the people he was writing about.
I then create the book club groups. I have tried various types of groupings with my eighth-grade students, but the grouping that works the best for rich conversation and reflection is a good mix of boys and girls and varying reading levels. This allows varying opinions of and perspectives on the book itself as well as the stories it holds.
Because the book is all of 80 pages long and broken into logical chapters, this book study is easily finished within one week. I have the students silently read each chapter. When they are finished, their first assignment is to talk about the images. They start by reflecting on what they actually see in the image. Next, they try to get to know the person or people in the image through the use of group inference. They talk about the person’s mood and make assumptions about the person’s life and quality of life.
After going through each of the images, I have students reflect about the stories within the chapter. I have them use the following questions as starters, but the conversation goes well beyond what I am asking of them.
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What surprised you about what you read?
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What connections can you make with the people in this chapter?
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What might your view of life be if you were in this situation?
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Who would be your support system if you were an immigrant kid in the 1900s?
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Do people today go through similar experiences anywhere in the world?
This list of questions allows my students to focus on the people in each chapter while making personal connections to them and their lives. Usually, depending on the personality of the group of students, their conversations are peppered with emotions such as anger and fear that these kids had to endure such things during the 1900s at such an early age.
Collaborative Learning
While my students are having these conversations, they are taking group notes on a shared Google Document. I make my way around the class, listening and making sure that they are on track. I also stop to become part of some of the conversations, especially if they need some guidance or encouragement. I have students share their group documents with me so I can watch what they are writing in real time or check back to see their progress.
The benefits of these Russell Freedman book clubs are many.
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My students are reading with emotion, creating engagement and understanding.
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My students are practicing sharing their thinking about reading.
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My students are learning about historical events from primary sources.
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My students are analyzing images and comparing their thinking with their peers’.
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My students, while reading, are building their academic content vocabulary through reading and discussion.
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My students are collecting information to be used in a claim/evidence essay.
The unit ends with a writing assignment as an assessment of what they learned. I ask students to create a claim based on the book as a whole. They then use the various notes that they took as a group to look for evidence that supports their claim, as well as counterclaims.
There are many wonderful books by Russell Freedman that can be used in this book-club style of lesson. Here are some other titles that I have used with great success:
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Kids at Work, about child labor in the late 1800s and early 1900s
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Freedom Walkers, about the Montgomery Bus Boycott
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Children of the Great Depression, about the effect of the Great Depression on children’s lives
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Vietnam: A History of the War, about the Vietnam War, told in a way to help students understand its realities
These student-led book clubs not only use powerful and emotionally charged books that students can immediately connect to, but build independent learning in a collaborative group work environment. As the teacher, I am able to take a step back and guide my students through the learning they are creating for themselves. I have found that with regular practice, my students become more independent and self-starting, creating the methods of reading, thinking, and writing that work best for them.
All this while learning about significant events and people in America’s history.
