Children’s Classic Book Study Workshop Activity Outline

　　(1) Activ­i­ty meth­ods
This work­shop is con­duct­ed in small groups, where par­tic­i­pants read togeth­er through team­work, divi­sion of labor, mutu­al assis­tance, shar­ing and dis­cus­sion. They usu­al­ly com­mu­ni­cate and share resources through online com­mu­ni­ca­tion tools, and meet up to exchange ideas when con­ve­nient.
 
　　(2) Read­ing Scope
1. Clas­sics suit­able for chil­dren to read;
2. Top­ics of com­mon inter­est to most mem­bers;
3. Top­ics and works that are help­ful to teach­ers’ read­ing instruc­tion.
 
　　(3) Pur­pose and slo­gan
Read for your­self, read for fun; pro­mote each oth­er and nour­ish each oth­er.
 
　　(4) Ori­gins of the Study Group
The form of read­ing club orig­i­nat­ed from the Swedish folk in the ear­ly 20th cen­tu­ry. It was main­ly a form of mutu­al learn­ing and self-con­tin­u­ing edu­ca­tion for adults. Lat­er, it became pop­u­lar with the sup­port of the Swedish gov­ern­ment. In the late 1990s, about half of Swedish adults par­tic­i­pat­ed in read­ing clubs.

Anoth­er famous sys­tem in the his­to­ry of read­ing clubs is the “Clas­sic Book Read­ing Club” in the Unit­ed States. It start­ed with intel­lec­tu­al elites, extend­ed to celebri­ties, and lat­er expand­ed to chil­dren. It uses “coop­er­a­tive explorato­ry dis­cus­sion” as its impor­tant method. The read­ing method it advo­cates can be seen in “How to Read a Book” writ­ten by its founder.

After the 1980s, read­ing clubs in Tai­wan began to flour­ish and played a very pos­i­tive role in pro­mot­ing chil­dren’s read­ing.
In recent years, var­i­ous forms of read­ing clubs, such as par­ent-child read­ing clubs, class read­ing clubs, and read­ing clubs for enthu­si­asts, have grad­u­al­ly begun to be explored in read­ing pro­mo­tion activ­i­ties in main­land Chi­na.
The Red Mud Chil­dren’s Book Clas­sics Read­ing Club is also an explorato­ry read­ing club mod­el. The basic form is that adults relat­ed to chil­dren’s read­ing (main­ly par­ents and edu­ca­tors) read chil­dren’s books and clas­sics togeth­er in a coop­er­a­tive and mutu­al assis­tance man­ner, and by improv­ing their own read­ing skills, they encour­age chil­dren around them to enjoy read­ing.
 
　　(V) Prin­ci­ples of the Dia­gram Study Ses­sion
http://landaishu.zhongwenlink.com/home/upload20083/2010667547880.jpg
As shown in the dia­gram, the dis­cus­sion dur­ing a read­ing work­shop is only a small part of the read­ing process. The read­ing process is essen­tial­ly a process where read­ers draw upon their own life expe­ri­ences and pri­or read­ing expe­ri­ence to com­mu­ni­cate with the per­son they are read­ing from. Prepa­ra­tion for the read­ing and dis­cus­sions dur­ing the read­ing ses­sion are entire­ly autonomous process­es for the par­tic­i­pants. In fact, the deep­er the par­tic­i­pa­tion and the greater the con­tri­bu­tion to the group (and the help pro­vid­ed to oth­er par­tic­i­pants), the greater the ben­e­fits for the par­tic­i­pants them­selves.
 
　　(6) Basic Study Meth­ods
1. Deter­mine the theme and mate­ri­als;

2. Deter­mine the dis­cus­sion frame­work and mod­el;
3. Deter­mine the divi­sion of labor;
4. Indi­vid­ual study and prepa­ra­tion;
5. Online com­mu­ni­ca­tion, shar­ing of infor­ma­tion and expe­ri­ences;
6. Get togeth­er to dis­cuss.
 
　　(VII) Demon­stra­tion Dis­cus­sion Frame­work and Divi­sion of Labor
The fol­low­ing demon­stra­tion frame­work is only a mod­el for ref­er­ence. It is not suit­able for all works. More­over, in actu­al com­mu­ni­ca­tion, a dis­cus­sion group that grad­u­al­ly reach­es a tac­it under­stand­ing can com­plete­ly aban­don the estab­lished mod­el. Read­ing itself should be fresh and inter­est­ing.

Com­mon dis­cus­sion angles and divi­sion of labor are as fol­lows:
1. Intro­duc­tion of the top­ic;
2. Author infor­ma­tion;
3. Back­ground infor­ma­tion;
4. Relat­ed research;
5. Ques­tion set;
6. Inter­est­ing details;
7. Tex­tu­al research;
8. Diver­gent reac­tion;
9. Extend­ed form of the work;
10. Theme exten­sion.
 
　　(8) Par­tic­i­pant Oblig­a­tions
1. Claim roles and tasks;
2. Bub­ble (via email or post­ing on forums);
3. Con­tribute (share con­fu­sion, expe­ri­ence, and resources);
4. Respect each oth­er.

 
   
Study Group Online Shar­ing and Dis­cus­sion Demon­stra­tion Link:
    [Study Ses­sion Shar­ing] Shar­ing Mate­ri­als on Study­ing Clas­sic Chil­dren’s Books with Life Themes
    [Study Ses­sion Top­ic] How to read sto­ries from pic­tures in pic­ture books?
    [Study Ses­sion Spe­cial Top­ic] Chil­dren’s Books About Self-Iden­ti­ty
    [Study Ses­sion Spe­cial] Sing Nurs­ery Rhymes from Pic­ture Books in May (New Alter­na­tive Books Added)