nonfiction topic clubs

What is a club?

A club is a group of people working together!

We know that avid readers talk about books with their peers and friends. I connected our conversation about clubs to the work they have done in partnerships all year. We discussed what we know about talking about books;

Sit elbow-to-elbow and knee-to-knee
Listen
Level 1 voice when talking about books, but level 0 when reading before talking
We use words like, "I think _______ because"

This week the Kindergarteners chose nonfiction topics they were interested in. We made a large chart with the topics based on the all about books children have been studying for their informational writing.

Our Nonfiction Topic Clubs

Animals
Farms
Insects
Things that GO
Birds

The readers wrote their names on sticky notes and chose their topics. We spent time modeling and reflecting, noticing how club members prepare for meeting with their clubs by using sticky notes to mark wow pages, pages they have questions about, or pages they connect to.

Our reflections connected to the work that we have done throughout the year in our reading and writing partnerships.

 

On our first day of working in our topic clubs I videotaped the children. The next morning we watched two of their videos and talked about what we noticed, using their prior knowledge bout being in a partnership and talking about books.

What was powerful about the way our clubs worked together? 

Children sat close together and took turns sharing their pages.

What do we need to work on? 

Talking together and making connections.
Using words like, I think and I wonder...





I transcribed their words and we circled the teaching point for the day;

Clubs talk about their books.

During Reading Workshop later that morning one club modeled what all of our clubs should sound like and we recorded the ways they talked about their books and the language they used.

The children prepared for their club time and practice using specific language to share, connect, and reflect!

 

 

 

Following this powerful work in their topic clubs, we pulled out three essentials;

In Topic Clubs. . .

We share sticky notes- WOW pages, questions, and information!
We ask why?
We make connections.