Staff Book Club Fever, 1793

Lincoln Staff Book Clubs are up and running again. We are reading Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson for our November book discussions. Book club members read the first half of the book with the task of reading and thinking about what they were doing as readers. My goal was to have us think about the skills we are using as proficient readers when approaching a historical fiction text. When we think about what we do as readers we are able to share that thinking with students.

Fever 1793 is a great book, and it has given us a fabulous story to talk about. Here are a couple of comments book club members made about their thinking as readers.

•  "I needed to do lots of visualizing in the beginning...I noticed myself reread tons in the beginning.  Once I got into the story then I started predicting what would happen next and predicting how I think the book might end."
•  "I noticed myself relating this story to parts of the Framework for Poverty book...I could really feel what Matilda was feeling during this time in the story! "
• "I am also finding myself looking up some of the vocab words. "
• "I also did lots of visualizing in this book. The author did a great job of providing details so you could really see/feel what was going on... I loved the banter between Matilda and her mother. I could “see” them arguing.   I know this is based on real events but I ”googled” a couple of things to see if they were real such as the Blanchard hot air balloon (real event in Philadelphia).  I didn’t know they had them back in 1793."
• "I noticed myself reading and rereading details about the setting and trying to get a strong visualization about the setting and the people (what the surroundings look like, what the people might be wearing, tasks they are doing). "

Readers are thinkers. Teachers reading YA novels are thinking about the skills they are using as readers.