Reading Beyond the Page: Pedagogical Implications of Teachers' Experiences in Book Clubs

• In Event: 14.044 - Roundtable Session 2
  In Roundtable Session: 14.044-7 - Instructional Factors in Equitable Education

Abstract

This paper explores the findings of a qualitative research project that questions how teachers’ experiences in book clubs can inform their pedagogical practices. Framed by a social constructivist epistemological stance, grounded in the work of narrative inquiry, and conceptualized by transactional reader-response theory, data collection methods employed were: in depth open-ended interviews, written reading interest profiles, attendance at three book club meetings, and written reflections from my researcher’s journal. This paper showcases both explicit and implicit ways in which thirteen Canadian teachers’ experiences in book clubs enter into the classroom, including selecting ‘quality’ literature, facilitating student book clubs, talking to students about individual and collective reading, and allowing students an element of choice in reading material.

Author

• Jennifer Jane Rottmann, University of Ottawa