Kara+Davis

7th & 8th Grade English and History Mead Middle School
 * Kara Davis

State of the State:** See Mary Shaffer’s introduction! Seriously though, we team teach and much of our background, educationally and at Mead, is similar. I have a Masters in Reading and am highly qualified in history and in my classroom, students read and write, listen and think, view and watch A LOT- for fun, critically, to analyze, and so on. Next year, in addition to improving my skills on the IWB and creating more interactive flipcharts, I will be spearheading a Book Club for 7th and 8th graders at Mead. Our school has done an amazing job of fostering kids’ enjoyment of reading through AR and some fabulous teachers who bring reading passionately into the class; where I believe we've fallen short so far is in providing time and space for kids’ discussion and sharing of their independent reading, outside of classroom work. As I finished my Master’s program, I designed an ongoing staff development around this need (never enacted due to time, fear, place, and fear), so for me, this project has been a nice return to an old theme. My hope is that what I do here can later be copied and altered to fit as an Orange Team AR Discussion Board for Mary’s and my English classes (basically taking certain entries of our reading journal to an online forum for sharing on a regular basis).

That said, I want to make sure I’m thoughtfully using elements of literature and literary terms to engage students into some higher level discussions (both orally and digitally) about books and the craft of writing, and of course, I want to creatively incorporate technology. Thus, the virtual campus sponsored [|Bulldog Book Club]. This club is a voluntary, free-flowing membership purely for the “love of the game”. The bookclub will split its 45 minute meeting time between face to face discussion time and online discussion / exploring books, authors, and writings. Although this is an “extracurricular” club and not subject to grading, I’ve got a threefold standards vision of target student learnings & experiences:
 * My Goals:**

o Read, respond, discuss- variety of genres / perspectives o Recognize, apply and use lit terms and techniques to make points and analyze readings o Recognize, use, and analyze figurative language o Compare & contrast, synthesize, evaluate readings o Write clearly & concisely & artfully with detail/support ➢ Communication & Collaboration -interact, collaborate and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media. - communicate info & ideas effectively to multiple audiences…
 * English Benchmarks- students will…**
 * Tech Standards- students will…**

➢ Digital Citizenship - all of ‘em

➢ coming soon to a wiki near you...
 * Principles of Comp. Literacy Instruction & BP’s- this course will...**

1. Are there options for me to incorporate/facilitate students undertaking some extensions (tech or not) based on their bookclub readings? Posting reviews on Mary’s Young Writers Blog… 2. Podcast options? I really want to get some other formats linked to this somehow! 3. Parent involvement… clubbers will see me at meetings and at school for the “how to”- what to do with the older readers? 4. Engaging/supporting lower level readers
 * Questions for my fellow Campers!**

**Next Steps:**
1. Meeting #1- Intros, who we are (fun book bio?), book talk first three options, learn Virtual Campus… 2. Finishing book selections, read them, generate discussion ?'s... may be an ongoing thing