KEY FINDINGS
> > Kylene Beers and Robert E. Probst (2017) remind us that the fundamental reason for reading is to learn, grow, and change. As they note: • If a changemaker—as a person—is one who inspires, who offers creative solutions to social problems, who mentors, who collaborates—then we see no reason why texts should not be viewed as changemakers. They can be viewed as changemakers if we recognize that we read for a far more critical reason than to be able to answer someone else’s questions; we read to raise our own questions. We read to explore, to wonder, to grow, to become what we did not even know we might want to be. We read to change. > > The authors encourage us to be open to reading for new information— information that gives us pause and prompts us to reconsider old ways of thinking and doing things. > > The questions we ask of our students should be the questions we ask of ourselves when we read: • What surprised me? • What did the author think I already know? • What changed, challenged, or confirmed my thinking? > > These are the kinds of open-ended questions that drive thinking, learning, and change. More to Know: A Grand Conversation An easy way to understand the lively, shared conversation we want to promote in a student book club is to consider the rush of conversation that often follows an intense or provocative film you see with friends. As you walk out of the movie theater, each member of the group noting the film’s memorable moments, you are collectively swept up in the thrill of intellectual analysis—connecting your experience with the film to other films you may have seen, analyzing the film’s deeper meaning, expressing new insights, and all the while, energetically building on, extending, and refining each other’s thoughts as you cite moments from the film to support your opinions. The invigorating conversation feels urgent and profound as you craft together an understanding of the experience you just shared in the darkened theater: What did it mean? How might it forever change your understanding of the world?
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BOOK CLUBS
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