This post is written by 起点传媒member, Richard Meyer, who will be participating in a at the this summer.聽
My copy of Grand Conversations (Peterson & Eeds, 1990) is very well worn. The book flops open to my favorite parts just like any book (and teaching resource) that we come to love deeply, value as teachers, and rely on to influence our students鈥� thinking. I hadn鈥檛 heard of book clubs when I first read Grand Conversations, but now it seems that everyone I know is in a book club. My wife鈥檚 book club reads some of the greatest new fiction and nonfiction they can locate. When I ask her how her group鈥檚 meeting went on one particular evening, she answers, 鈥淲e did what we always do. Some of us read the book. Some didn鈥檛. We order wine and some tasty appetizers. We talk a little about the book and then we talk about our kids, our jobs, our spouses, our joys, and our worries.鈥�
鈥淲hat about the book?鈥� I ask.
She grins. 鈥淲e鈥檙e usually done with the book really fast, and then we get into getting caught up with each other. By the time we finish that, we all have to leave鈥攂ut not until someone suggests the next book!鈥�
Her group鈥檚 book serves a few purposes. First, since she has to finish it within a month, it is an excuse to leave other things behind and just read. That鈥檚 a really good purpose. It鈥檚 also a legitimate reason to be social. That, too, is a fine purpose for a book. Sadly, it also reminds all the members of the group that they have tight schedules with no time to discuss a book, and because of that, the social part of a book group takes over.
What about in school? It seems that between NCLB and the CCSS, books have been repurposed to serve as measures of fluency, vocabulary, text-based (closely read) comprehension, and even as a place to study phonics. I鈥檝e just finished my memoir, which I can imagine 9-year-olds through 99-year-olds reading. Actually, it鈥檚 an exaggerated memoir because I鈥檓 just not sure if I鈥檓 recalling all these events with objective clarity, but my recollections make me who I am and that鈥檚 who and what I present in the book. Engaging in a grand conversation about my book would be the biggest complement that any reader could offer. A grand conversation is not a check of any literacy skills; it鈥檚 an active discussion about this question: 鈥淲hat do you think?鈥�
Readers of my book鈥攐r any book鈥攚ill understand the story. And if they don鈥檛, they can certainly ask other readers what they think something means. I didn鈥檛 write the story to teach a specific reading skill. Readers will learn those in spite of my writing. I wrote the book to see what others think and with the hope that they鈥檒l talk to one another about my life during the summer when I was 9 years old. When I dare to cross a forbidden street, what do you think? When I think back about the hugeness of my fourth-grade teacher鈥檚 rear end, what do you think? What I鈥檓 beaten up because I鈥檓 Jewish, lie to my parents, try to build a robot, or climb a tree to hide, what do you think? When readers engage in conversations about books, those books make them better people, thoughtful people, enraged people, and people provoked to engage in some action. That鈥檚 a grand conversation. It鈥檚 the real reason for a book.
You can find more about Flush: The Exaggerated Memoir of a Fourth Grade Scaredy-Cat Super-Hero . If you want to learn the truth about me as a reader, have a read of the interview with me .
Peterson, R., & Eeds, M. (1990). Grand conversations: Literature groups in action. New York: Scholastic.
Rick Meyer has been a writer since he could talk. He鈥檚 a professor at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, as well as a husband, father, and grandfather. He wants to know what you think.