Walk and Talk Book Club challenges sixth graders
By Mark Raeber
Progress Staff Writer
A group of avid readers at Marie Schaefer School has been exercising their minds and their bodies this spring while taking part in a novel book club that challenged them to read pages and pedometers.
The school’s Walk and Talk Book Club was the brainchild of Librarian Cynthia Ubbens, who said she was looking for a way to encourage the preteens to adopt healthier lifestyles and at the same time expand their literary horizons with books they would not normally choose.
Her solution was a club combining reading with walking.
The club’s 10 to 13 regular participants met for half an hour in the school gymnasium beginning at 7:30 a.m. each Tuesday from February through April. Over that time period, the students read five books.
“The students chose the books,” Ubbens said. “I let them look through the different novel sets we have at the school and I asked them to think of a different genre for each time we planned to get together and they agreed on the books.
“We tried to chose different genres so we had a good mix,” she explained. “And we tried to think outside the box so we were reading books that were different from those the students usually read.”
For the Tuesday morning get-togethers, the students walked in pairs or small groups around the gym while talking about the books they were reading. At the end of each walk, club members gathered in the school library for healthy snacks.
During their walks the students discussed character, setting, plot and other topics related to the novels. They also shared their opinions about the books and they switched partners regularly to gain a broader perspective from discussion with as many students as possible.
Ubbens said she often directed their talks with suggested topics for discussion and questions related to the reading.
Each student also was required to present to the group a talk about his or her favorite book.
Several times during the semester, club members tested their knowledge of the books by competing in a “Battle of the Books” during which Ubbens asked questions pertaining to the works being read and the students had to identify the book and its author.
“They got points for correct answers and the one with the most points at the end of the battle was the champion,” she explained. Each participant also received a pedometer to track his or her walking.
“The goal for the students each week was to walk farther than they did during the previous gathering. So we were exercising our bodies and our brains at the same time,” Ubbens said.
Club membership was open to all of Schaefer’s sixth graders and a large group of students attended the initial organizational meeting. The founding membership, though, included only about a dozen boys and girls.
“I knew having meetings in the morning before school would be a problem for some who could not get here to school, so that weeded out a lot of kids,” Ubbens said, while explaining her after school schedule was too busy to accommodate meeting then.
“And when the students found out they had to read a book a week, that weeded out a few, too,” she added.
Most of the students who signed on as members stayed the course through the semester, though, Ubbens noted.
“We began with a good mix of boys and girls, though some of the boys did not come as often as the girls because they may have been distracted by sports or other activities,” she said.
Club member Alex Clements said participating in the weekly activity was fun.
“We didn’t walk very long because we only had one half-hour each morning but as a group we tried to do better than the last time,” Clements said.
Club member Jessica Sanders said she and some of her friends even formed a spin off of the Walk and Talk Book Club that focuses on fantasy adventure. She explained the club is for readers interested in the nine books in author D.J. MacHale’s Pendragon series.
“We get together as much as we can and we have continued with the walking and talking,” she explained.
Ubbens said the Walk and Talk Book Club also generated another spin off that could benefit all students who use the school’s library.
“We have created a Library Advisory Board (LAB), which allows the student members to give input on the library’s programs and on how they can be improved,” she said.
So far, the LAB has hosted a breakfast for parents and its members have made regular visits to the District 90 early childhood center, which is also located at Schaefer, to read stories to the young students.
Before she organized the club, Ubbens sent letters to local businesses soliciting support or incentives to offer the students.
Wal-Mart donated $100 to help acquire pedometers for keeping track of the mileage accumulated by the walkers, and to purchase the healthy snacks served at the end of each meeting.
Cold Stone Creamery donated bookmarks on which the students kept track of their reading. For each five books read and verified by Ubbens, Cold Stone offered a free ice cream treat.
mraeber@bnd.com
