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The
questions in The Book Club Game propel the players through the plot
of any shared story allowing them to connect with the characters,
savor the settings, and discover the themes together. Here the literature
comes alive through a Grand Conversation that weaves the players in
and out of the story and through their own lives. Through these focused
generic questions the special messages of each story are revealed and
related to illuminating the true magic of reading and communication.
 The Book Club Game’s questioning strategy provides an alternative
way of discussing a story through understanding and connecting with
literature. This approach is significantly different from the traditional
approaches of study guides, worksheets, and teacher-given answers or
expected responses. Knowledge level or factual questions of who, where,
what, when, and how are addressed through the children’s illustration
of the story on the wipe-off game board as well as through specific
questions. Deeper leveled questions begin to connect the players beyond
this knowledge level. Like a painting, a story has many subjective
truths that are better appreciated when discovered through sharing
responses rather than dictating them. The questions allow each player
to have equal time to express his/her ideas in each and every turn.
This strategy requires that the other players must listen to each player’s
responses so that they can give different responses about the same
question. In this way all players become active listeners as well as
speakers. The game has an inherent ability to bring out the ideas from
the shyest of students as well as taming the “talkers” to
be good listeners.
The Questions are based on Bloom’s Taxonomy of Comprehension
(Benjamin Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, 1956)
and the story elements of narrative literature. These are the very
questions
that not only ensure comprehension, but also allow the reader to
connect to the story on a meaningful level generating a genuine love
for reading.
Each question is labeled in code on the bottom left hand corner telling
what story element(s) (plot, character, theme, setting) is (are)
covered followed by the level(s) of Bloom’s Taxonomy. This labeling empowers
players to become aware of these questioning strategies and identify
them so that they can use them consistently in new situations. This
process is termed “meta-cognition”. The labels also enable
the teacher to manipulate the questions to reinforce teaching.
For a detailed discussion with examples of both the
Story Elements and Bloom�s Taxonomy along with a reproducible
of� �How to Generate Your Own Questions� Guideline
and Question Grid�� please order The Book
Club Game Extension Activity Booklet.
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