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This week, we began our in-class book club groups. Students chose their first, second, and third book club choices from 8 Katherine Applegate and Kate DiCamillo book titles. As students eagerly began diving into their book, we focused on the importance of the the first few chapters in the story to help us really understand the characters and setting. Using sticky notes to keep track of important character details help us make inferences from what characters say, how they act, how they feel, and how they relate to other characters in the story. We also noted important details of the setting and practice visualizing descriptions used by the author. Using a Reader’s Notebook in Google Classroom, students can make note of any questions or discussion points they want to talk about during their book club discussions. Reading together in a group has been valuable not only for practice reading their oral fluency, but the activity also helps students learn to notice and note small details the author used to help build the story. Students are also learning to stop after each chapter and talk about the importance of each chapter, and why the author may have included that information in the book.