Reading Partnerships is similar to book clubs but it is only 2 students working together at a time. If I would have thought of this at the beginning of the year, I would have started here before moving to the larger groups of literature circles (3-6 students). In Reading Partnerships, 2 students read and discuss the same book. I am currently doing Reading Partnerships and have based it mainly on
Beth Newingham's advice. I have also used many of her resources. I gave the students choices of about 5-6 books that were on their level and had them rank their book choices. I then paired students up based on similar interests. Students then met, created their reading goals and began reading. We have already worked this year on asking questions - whether called "thick" questions, "big" questions, or "teacher" questions. They are working on creating these to discuss with their partners. When they are done reading, students will create
independent book projects. They will have a choice of 6 different projects to choose from. I found most of these choices on
Mrs. Renz's 4th Grade Site. The few ways I would change it for next time (unfortunately that will be next year):
1. Do it earlier in the year because by providing the students with a list of books to look at, most students wanted to read them all at some point - not enough time at this point in the year.
2. Do it earlier in the year to get the students use to discussing books with another student.
If you give this a try or have done it in the past, let me know your thoughts. Happy Reading :)
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