“Emergent” means “in the process of becoming.” My daughter is an emergent reader. While she’s not yet reading independently, she has many skills of a reader. She understands the arc of a story, she can read the pictures, and she recognizes some words and can figure out others from the context and the letters of the word itself.
Seattle Homeschool Group (SHG), of which our family is a part, includes an emergent readers’ book club, but it’s meant for children further along the path toward independent reading than Meg is, as the group asks that children bring books to read aloud to each other. Together with a couple of other reading mamas, I’m considering starting a group for children in the earlier stages of becoming readers.
In discussing the group, one mama distinguished between storytime, which is mostly about reading aloud, and book club, which also includes discussion about the books with the goal of encouraging critical thinking about form and content. I’m excited by the possibilities, and yet I don’t know what this might look like with group of 4-year-olds. I have confidence that it is possible, as I’ve had many thoughtful conversations about stories and ideas with Meg, and I’m considering how to bring the joy and wonder of those free-ranging conversations into the corral of a regular, organized meeting.
I’m interested in your thoughts. Parents, librarians, booksellers, teachers: When you read with children, what have you noticed gets them thinking and talking about what you’re reading? Have you read books to young children that always seem to spark conversation? Are there activities you’ve done that help them engage with a book? What other ideas and advice can you offer? Please share your thoughts about discussing books with children in the comments.
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E.B. White and the spiral
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May 12th, 2009 at 10:33 am
Hi Jenni,
Our kids are avid readers and we love to talk about books. I’m in a mother/son book club with our 10-year old and several friends, and we moms are continually astounded at the depth at which our boys read, their memory of detail, and their varied responses to the same material.
We never established ground rules, but the unspoken assumption is that there is no “right way” to read or interpret a book. All comments are welcome, from the silly to the sublime. If the discussion gets stuck in superficiality, one of us will ask about the books themes or symbolism, then sit back and marvel at the kids’ ideas.
At home our family takes turns (all four of us) reading aloud from classics. Taken in small bites, some of the books that kids would not choose on their own turn out to be their favorites.
May 12th, 2009 at 11:55 am
I think that might be very challenging with this age group. Critical analysis of plot and character is not the strong suit of most preschoolers. They want to be IN the story, to experience it. A great book sucks you in like that.
Have you thought about doing something more along the dramatic play lines? Getting together 3-4 preschool-aged kids and acting out “Frog and Toad” in a reader’s theater-style format can be great fun and works with a span of ages and abilities. Drama is a huge component of the preschooler’s inner life (eh, and external interactions as well). They love novel ways to express those big feelings — to be the annoying or beautiful or mean character who says beautiful or nasty or funny things. You may find that they’ll want to act out the same story many, many times (beyond your personal desire to do so. These games/reflections also build socio-emotional skills and bond the group.
Just start with Going on a Bear Hunt. Way fun and funny, particularly when done with kids you don’t know all that well.
May 13th, 2009 at 9:34 pm
I’ve been considering recruiting my own book club of mother/daughter peers to foster some intimacy and connection in our relationship. Reading has always been the jumping off point for discussions large and small.
Acting out stories has always been problematic for my children. I remember vividly acting out Abiyoyo read on a record by Pete Seeger with my brother when I was a young girl, but suggesting or doing the same with my children made them either annoyed or scared.
I wonder if just choosing a book and reading it aloud would be enough to let conversation happen organically. Kids have lots of opinions, as can be seen at any library storytime. They are aching to relate every similar experience or idea that comes to mind.
May 13th, 2009 at 10:50 pm
We had an Emergent Readers group a couple of years ago and used it primarily as a tool to share the process of reading with friends. So, the kids would bring books and poems and magazines and read whatever they wished to the group. Even if it was just a memorized easy reader. We had a mixed age group, and that was useful for the younger kids especially. It seemed to help our kids to see that other kids could also read – that reading was not just an adult activity.
We now participate in a book group with kids ages 4-8. We talk about the books, what we liked and didn’t, why, and sometimes discuss concepts in literature like setting, plot, conflict, etc. But we keep it simple and focus on the fun of reading a book and the subjects that grow organically from the topic in the book.
In our family, we have certainly read a book that has inspired us to do something related to the story….like cooking like Laura’s family in the Little House books…or writing a letter to a famous person like the main character does in A Letter to Mrs. Roosevelt. You can think along these lines as a way to get kids to both enjoy a story that you all share and then relate it further to their lives.
You might also pick up a copy of Five In A Row and see if any of the activities/concepts discussed with those books gives you ideas for an activity or discussion to have with the kids about the books.
Enjoy!
May 13th, 2009 at 11:03 pm
I don’t know how Meg would take to to acting out a tale, but I’m performance-shy myself.
I’ve been thinking since Meg was born about a mother-daughter bookclub when she’s older. I think you’re right about the power of discussing books to foster intimacy. There’s an article in the Nov/Dec 2007 issue of Mothering magazine called “the page turners” about a group that started when the girls were 8 and which has been meeting for 11 years. It’s very much what I’d like to experience when Meg gets older. I’d point you to the article, but it’s not online. Here’s a bit of it:
May 16th, 2009 at 8:15 pm
My son isn’t into performing or pretending to be a character. I know some kids who really are. I agree that just asking them what they think or what they liked or how they might feel if something similar happened to them would elicit some conversation. I’ve asked Logan questions like “Do you think that the seeds would have grown without Toad reading aloud and singing?” “What do you think the London Underground looks like?” and “If you could be any animal in the Pooh stories, which one would you want to be?” “What would you do if you had a friend who was always bouncing you?” Sometimes I just get a one-word answer, sometimes we have a great discussion. And we usually end up looking some things up: How tall would Mr. Popper’s Penguins be? What does the London Eye look like?
May 17th, 2009 at 10:45 am
Hi,
I realized you’re talking about conceiving a different type of book group, but I wanted to let you know that we’ve been to the emergent book club a few times (my son is 5 1/2 and I would say he is a beginning beginner… still learning his letters and that they make sounds), so there is absolutely no requirement for kids to be reading. Some kids “read” board books (actually recited from memory) and other kids sounded out the words on the pages of Dr. Seuss. My son enjoyed the process of sharing books with each other. (But we have a scheduling conflict now, and I actually think it would serve me better to be in a smaller group to share like that.)
For us, I pose some questions or we do activities that mirror or come from books or we get many books on the same topic, so that the natural process of integrating information happens. But as Shannon says, about half the time my son is not interested in my questions, and that makes me wonder about the challenges of getting a group to focus like that.
It is so nice to see you posting again! And I’m curious to hear how things develop for you!
May 20th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
Shannon -
I’m interested in your examples, especially how they prompt an imaginative or thoughtful response. I sometimes start with the intention of discussing and wind up lecturing.
Stacy -
Thanks for the glimpse into the emergent reader group. It sounds like it’s not quite as demanding as it’s billed.
May 21st, 2009 at 2:36 pm
Leah– At one storytime, I had a 3-year-old girl that would interrupt every story and answer every question with “PEANUT BUTTER!”
“What will you be for Halloween?”
“PEANUT BUTTER!”
“This story is about getting ready for school, and…”
“PEANUT BUTTER!”
“Have you ever been to the zoo?”
“PEANUT BUTTER! PEANUT BUTTER!”
Now, that’s my kind of book group.