Book Study via Voxer and Google

I am involved in a Voxer book study for Cris Tovani's book Do I Really Have to Teach Reading? Content Comprehension, Grades 6-12.  I have read two of her other books and learned so much. I was able to take away strategies to use immediately.

Before I get into some of my takeaways from the beginning of the book, I want to get some feedback on how to do this possibly more effectively.  The other two women (if you're reading this and want to participate please let me know!) and I created a Google document to record our thinking as we progress through the reading and we also have a Voxer group where we talk, share new learning, respond to questions etc. This format has worked well for in the past, but we are always looking for ways to improve. Has anyone ever tried something that worked well regarding book studies where the participants do not work in the same building or even district?

Ok, back to some takeaways!
~Tovani emphasizes that when teaching students to question the text as they read, the questions need to be questions they really care about.  When I would teach students questions in the past, they would ask questions that didn't really stop to make them ponder or want to keep reading to find the answer.  They simply performed the task that I asked them to perform because they really wanted to make their teacher happy.  Looking back, I really needed to drive home this point.  I tried and tried, but I don't think I tried enough.  Maybe by finding more engaging texts at a variety of levels would have helped with this.

~Cris points out that learning to read doesn't end in elementary school.  As a reading specialist I 110% agree with this statement.  However, I can see content area teachers' frustrations with needing to get through their standards at a quality that they feel is expected for their grade level and finding it difficult to carve out time to teach reading. Tovani does point out and I appreciate this that "teaching a few strategies well is a key aspect of my work. Rather than a large grab bag of gimmicks and techniques, I find myself returning to these core skills with students and teachers." (p. 5)

~On page 15 she uses a double column connection chart that I love with making connections.  The students write their connection on the left, and on the right the prompt "So What..." is posed. This makes the students really contemplate on how their connection extends the text. I love this and can't wait to use with teachers!

~I love the chocolate cake analogy and losing weight that Tovani mentions. If I want to lose weight something has to give, there needs to be a trade off.  If I want my students to understand rigorous text, I may need to show them how to hold their thinking with that particular piece of text.  So something has to give! Now I'm going to get back to my chocolate cake!

So in a nutshell those are some of my takeaways from the book. I will definitely be sharing more.  Again, if you would like to join our book club just let me know! And also, if you have other ideas on how to make the book club more engaging or anything else pass them my way please!