"I'm really worried about my book group."

At the end of class today, Hope (this is how Cindy referred to her on her blog.) asked to stay after class to ask a few questions.

The first few questions (carefully recorded in pen on her hand) were about MLA citations for the persuasive essay students are writing in class. Then, she took me off guard with the statement that I used to title this post.

"I'm really worried about my book group." Her eyes had filled with tears as she said this.

I told Hope that I was worried too and I am. Worried, confused, and frustrated.

It turns out that one of her primary concerns is that the behavior of the young men in her group would adversely affect her grade in the class. (This is a Pre-AP course after all, and many of my students are concerned with their grades.) But, Hope is also frustrated by several other factors.

She confirmed my suspicion that these young men had indeed done the reading. After she assured them that the book is really good AND recorded the page numbers on each of their book marks for the second meeting, they fell in line and all completed the reading. (I think there is a whole other potential gender study here about why the only female in the group took on the role of care taker for the others.) Yet, Hope said they just wouldn't talk about the book--well beyond the lesions.

Through our conversation she mentioned something else interesting. She feels that some of their reluctance to discuss the book comes from the fact that she is the only girl in the group and the book does talk about "sex and stuff."

Hope did say that she likes the book and thinks it is really good. Hope is a voracious reader and won't be turned off to reading by this negative experience.

Yet, I am in a spot now. I assured Hope that I would take care of the situation. Easy for me to say. How do I take care of this situation? What do I do about these young men? Do I pull them aside individually and tell them to stop acting immaturely? Do I make it a point to talk to the whole group about their behavior? If they really are too uncomfortable to discuss the book, how do I help them get beyond this barrier?

HELP!!!

Dragon Drawings, Teacher Research, and Teacher Behavior

Cindy chronicled our experience last week with a young man who shared his artistic genius with us on the book club discussion record. Never one to disappoint, this young man created a repeat performance this afternoon. (Lucky me, he's been doing this all year. ) Today's rendering came complete with antenna coming from each character's head. As strange as it sounds, from that detail alone it does appear that he is reading the book. When he arrived in class today I overheard him say to a classmate, "I think I got stupid from reading that book."

If he is reading, what am I complaining about then?

As I sat dutifully writing field notes, the teacher on my right shoulder was shouting at the researcher on my left shoulder to get out of my seat and yank the young man in the hall and insist that he stop goofing around just as I would have had I been moderating discussion or asking students to work in small groups.

So why did the researcher win this battle? I'm not sure. Maybe because Cindy was in the room and I didn' t want to taint the data. Or maybe because I hoped that in between the obvious goofing off he really was participating in a meaningful discussion of the novel. Or maybe because I'm still not sure how to unite the teacher from one shoulder with the researcher from the other shoulder into one seamless angelic creature.

Any thoughts?

My Life as a Teacher Researcher (or My Life as a Cindy Groupie)

OK, in all honesty despite having worked with Cindy for several years on book clubs in my classroom, I still feel like I am a complete novice at this teacher-researcher business.

I am starting to get the hang of it though. I suspect that given another 10 or 20 years, I might actually know what I am doing. :)

Here is the run down on the research I am currently doing in my classroom (not counting my perpetual quest to figure out what the deal is with several of my more eccentric *euphemism* students):

I am currently working with sophomores in one of my three honors English classes using book clubs to explore difficult/controversial/challenging topics in contemporary novels set in diverse locals or written by authors originating from diverse locals.

Originally, when I asked Cindy to conduct her research in my classroom my motives were simple: to help me use book clubs to help students further explore literature in an academic way. As an added bonus, book clubs allowed me to more honestly label the course "world literature" by increasing the diversity of texts students read beyond the two novels written by American authors and the two Shakespeare plays offered on the "required" reading list. Seriously.

Our book club experiment has expanded each semester and this go round we are looking at book clubs as a tool to help students learn to discuss tough topics in a constructive and mature manner. (I recognize that mature is asking A LOT of 15-years-olds. I guess I am a dreamer.)

Below you will find my reflections on the latest legs of my journey researching book clubs.