Student Engagement through Book Clubs: Lessons Learned Dr. Stephen Owen & Dr. Tod Burke Department of Criminal Justice Radford University

Introductions Dr. Stephen Owen & Dr. Tod Burke Our Experience with Book Clubs Goal: To Consider How Book Clubs Can Promote Student Engagement with Course Material

Literature Review Key Lessons: “Readicide” and “Reading Under Duress” Students Value Collaboration and Engagement Value of Writing about Reading What the Best College Teachers Do

For Discussion… What books related to your discipline – other than textbooks – could be used to enhance student learning?

Goals of Book Clubs Enhance engagement with course material Promote critical reading and critical thinking Enhance teamwork and communication skills

Structuring a Book Club Students work in groups Each group explores a book Multiple group meetings to process book content Incorporation of book content into class Final paper Group presentation/discussion Prior to meeting Summary/Reflective journal Develop discussion questions At the meeting Share ideas Discuss questions Prepare group answer to question posed by instructor

Implementation Issues One book, or multiple books? How to select books? How to assign groups? Ideal group size? Number of group meetings? What questions provide meaningful analysis? How to integrate with class? How to evaluate group work fairly?

Pro’s and Con’s PRO’s Promotes critical analysis See application of material More than a “book report” Promotes reading Builds professional skills OTHERS? CON’s Faculty workload Student workload “Free rider” issues Picking the right books Not a good fit for all classes OTHERS?

Developing a Book Club Consider one of your courses… What purpose? What books? What questions? How to integrate with class?

Conclusion Positive results of book clubs Questions?