What is the Michigan Teacher's Book Club?

Book clubs have been around for generations, although it may seem as if they just burst onto the scene, courtesy of Oprah. Various types of book clubs exist: some focus on fiction only; some focus specifically on memoir/biography; some focus on classics; some focus on political action; some are part of community read or One Book programs. The idea behind the Michigan Teachers Book Club is that it would lead teachers-in-training or practicing teachers to books they could discuss to enhance the teaching experience—solve problems, address issues, share concerns.

The Michigan Teachers Book Club was developed to facilitate discussions about publications relevant to teachers and to follow in the footsteps of the academic programs that have created their own book clubs. Michigan State University is one example: Susan Florio-Ruane's book Teacher Education and the Cultural Imagination (Erlbaum 2001) (a National Reading Conference award-winner) explored the possibilities in teacher development through the reading of ethnic autobiography and literature, as a genre from which teachers might learn about culture, literacy, and education in their own and others' lives. Her book demonstrates "how autobiography and discussion may be useful for teachers not only in constructing their own learning about culture, but also, by doing so, in participating in the transformation of learning within the teaching profession."

Book clubs provide opportunities for building camaraderie with one's colleagues, for forming bonds that can bring about institutional as well as personal change. The shared reading experience has proven to provide many types of benefits.

Those who have started professional, teacher-oriented book clubs have reported that the book club:

• brought about personal, curricular, and even organizational change
• established better working relationships among colleagues
• created a forum for exploring new teaching ideas or addressing perceived (or unperceived) problems and concerns
• gave a voice to some people in the department (who otherwise felt they didn't have a voice)

Many of you undoubtedly already belong to a book club with friends or neighbors. Why not consider one with your colleagues? Many teacher book clubs read one book a term/semester and meet over lunch (say, for example, during a scheduled professional development day); some read only pedagogical materials and some read fiction—the book itself isn't really the key to having a successful book club. For some ideas of books that you might use, many of which have been selections of other teacher book clubs, click here. For other tips to starting a book club, click here.

We hope that the titles suggested on our book club website will similarly inspire and transform learning within the profession. We've heard about several different types of successful book clubs, and we want to support them all—those for teachers, those for teachers-in-training, those for students and teachers, those for students alone. Please let us know what else you'd like to see on this site (email esladmin@umich.edu).

For each book club featured title, you'll find some background information about the book and the author, as well as questions to help promote discussion.

Please email esladmin@umich.edu if your club has questions for one of the authors, would like to request that the author of the book visit your book club, or would like to submit feedback about our site.

For more information about receiving a discount on one of the featured titles for the purposes of a teacher book club, please email us at esladmin@umich.edu.