Book Club Connection

This is a comprehensive text about the beliefs, issues, and practices at the forefront of literacy education-language, ethnic, and academic diversity; authentic assessment; social construction of meaning and knowledge-explored through the lens of a cohesive instructional design, the Book Club Program. As such, it provides a well-researched pedagogical model. Commentaries by eminent literacy scholars outside the project provide an expanded perspective on the many issues raised by the chapter authors. The resulting multiplicity of voices-including those of students (the authors of Chapter 10) who were fifth-grade participants in the Book Club program-is a unique feature of this long-awaited volume. Section I: The Book Club Program Foundations and Components * Theoretical and Research Foundations * Classrooms as Communities * Reading in the Book Club Program * When Readers Write * Contexts for Students to Lead Their Own Discussions * Section II: Extending Research on the Book Club Program * Talk About Text Among Special Education Students * Second-Language Learners in Mainstream Classrooms * The Cross-Aged Literacy Program * Assessment Research * Students Speak: Book Club from Our Perspective * Section III: Teacher-Researchers in the Book Club Program * Reflective Teaching for Continuing Development * Extensions to Early Elementary Classrooms * They Can Do It Too!: Book Club with First and Second Graders * The Content-Area Connection * A Portfolio Approach to Assessment The commentaries are written by: Gordon Wells * Carol Sue Englert * Robert Rueda * Donna E. Alvermann * Elfrieda H. Hiebert * P. David Pearson * Dorothy Strickland * Lee Galda * Barbara M. Taylor * Karen K. Wixson * Kathryn H. Au