We haven’t yet officially begun our nonfiction book club and already I’m learning valuable lessons I plan to channel into my teaching.
Lesson one: It’s very likely that not every group member will get to read his or her first choice. There will be disappointment.
And in disappointment, there is often opportunity for learning. How will our students handle the disappointment that comes with not being able to read what they’d hoped with their club? How will we?
We have choices. We could mope, or refuse to participate, or approach the club with a closed heart. Or, we could embrace the club’s choice, seeing the alternate pick as a chance to broaden our own horizons and discover something we might not have about the world, or ourselves. As is often the case, lessons learned while learning to be a better reader become lessons for life. If we can help kids become more tolerant when things don’t go their way in a book club, perhaps we can teach them to be more tolerant when things don’t go their way in general.
And so, finally, the choice is revealed:
We are reading Daring Greatly by Brene Brown. I hope all of you who were hoping for a different book not only embrace this choice, but also read the book you most wanted to read, perhaps using this second read as an opportunity to try out some of the moves you pick up while reading alongside others in our club. That is, after all, what we’d want our students to do.
I so look forward to reading and chatting with you. You voted to begin toward the end of June. That will give us all time to get the book and to start thinking about our goals and plans as readers. You also voted that Mondays at 8pm EST would be the best time to chat. Why don’t we plan to join on Twitter Monday, June 23 at 8pm EST to get our book club started. No need to read before then – we can discuss reading assignments and goals at our meeting.
More soon!
