Book Club

For this assignment, you will choose a novel appropriate to read aloud to students in grades K-2 from one of the following series. You will meet periodically with a group of students in our class who are reading a book from the same series—simulating what it might be like to be in a book club. Please note that each of you will read a different book in the same series (if you end up with the same one that’s fine):

You may purchase the book, or check it out from a library or the Curriculum Materials Center. You will have 5 class meetings and 3 assignments associated around your novel. Please see the syllabus for due dates:

  • Meeting 1: Bring your novel to class. You will meet with other class members who are reading from the same series. There is no assignment associated with this meeting other than bringing your novel to class. You need not have read anything yet.
  • Meeting 2: At this meeting, you will complete a character study based on a character in your series.
  • Meeting 3: In your book clubs, you will devise a series of guiding questions that can be used with your book series. You will also plan your book trailer.
  • Meeting 4: With your group, you will plan a book trailer to present to the class to engage other readers in your young reader book series. This book trailer may be uploaded to YouTube. Refer (and feel free to add) to this iMovie cheat sheet as you are filming and editing.
  • Meeting 5:  Present your book trailer to the class. This will take place during our final exam time.

Some characteristics of good trailers:

  • title included
  • music
  • narrator
  • doesn’t give away plot but gets you interested
  • main characters are represented
  • not too long; not too short
  • catchy
  • energetic