Friendship, Story Structure and Conversation in Second Grade Book Groups

Frog and Toad Are Friends and Mouse and Mole: Fine Feathered Friends are the first two books to be read by second graders in small groups. Students were very excited to explore the structure of these two books and discuss the literary elements embedded in each. Both of these books contain sophisticated language and metaphors, literary writing and beautiful illustrations as well. Even in this first session, second graders jumped into discussion as they made text to self and text to text connections by comparing elements from the story to their own lives and other books they had read. Second graders have been concentrating on exploring character personalities and traits that are reflected by actions in the story as they have been reading their independent reading books in reading workshop. With the addition of book groups, the exploration of character will continue in our small group discussions as well. It is readily apparent how discussing a book with others elevates the ideas of each individual and also enhances vocabulary, as sophisticated language shared from the book and from each student's contribution to discussion exposes and increases the vocabulary of all. Writing occurs in each book group after the reading and discussion of a section or chapter, and this enables the students to deepen their comprehension as they further express their ideas. We look forward to reading a number of books from a variety of genres in book groups this year in second grade.