Fostering Collaboration: A Book Club on Zoom

FOSTERING COLLABORATION Between Students and the Community: A Book Club on Zoom

— by Susan Binkley

When I heard in the spring of 2020 that schools would close due to the covid-19 outbreak and move to remote learning, I never imagined that I too would be learning remotely. I wasn’t a student, I wasn’t enrolled in any kind of class, and I certainly didn’t plan to be. I was a parent. I dreaded being turned into a homeschooler with the new remote learning situation. But an unexpected learning experience was a pleasant surprise during the very unpleasant covid-19 shutdown. This is not a story of a parent helping a child with her online assignments. Instead, it is the story of a parent who became a student in a fifth-grade class.

My daughter’s fifth-grade teacher at Wickliffe Progressive Elementary School sent an email inviting parents to join one of the class’s book discussion groups. As an avid reader, I jumped at the chance. I heard him describe the different book choices to the students during a Zoom morning meeting, and the book A Girl Named Disaster by Nancy Farmer caught my attention. The story took place in Mozambique and Zimbabwe – two countries I knew very little about. It didn’t appeal to my daughter, however, and she chose to be in a different book group. So when I joined the Girl book group, I wasn’t necessarily there in the role of my child’s mom, but just as a parent from the community.

The book group, consisting of the teacher, five students, and me, met on Zoom twice a week for three weeks. Our first session immediately started with the students teaching me how to use Zoom -- how to raise your hand and mute yourself on Zoom. We then launched into the discussion of the book. Once we started, I could barely get a word in edgewise. I was so impressed with how eager the students were to share their thoughts. They wanted to talk about the main character Nhamo, her grandmother, and the region. Their excitement about the story was lively and invigorating from the very first meeting until the last.

I learned so much from the students. They focused on different aspects of the story than I did and picked up on details that I missed. For example, they wanted to discuss the stories and tales told to Nhamo by her grandmother. I had glossed over these stories-within-a-story, and so I could barely contribute to the discussions about them. As children, these students often listen to stories themselves, whether bedtime stories or read-alouds

in class. In their reading of Girl, they were also listening to stories being told within the story – stories for them as well as for Nhamo. They paid attention to the grandmother in the book as they might pay attention to their own grandmother telling them a story.

As an adult, I am rarely told a story, so in my reading, I wasn’t “listening” to the stories. I initially skimmed over these parts of the book, but the students showed me how much I was missing. They talked excitedly about the tales and tried to figure out their purpose and meaning in the storyline. They taught me to read these sections much more closely so that I too could discuss the significance of the tales.

Since this was not in a traditional setting (in person), the students saw me as literally just another face on the screen in a box. The Zoom boxes equalize all participants. When you look at grid-view on the screen, no one has a bigger box, no one stands out, and there is nothing to single me out as an outsider. It is inclusive.

Progressive education aims for inclusion. It also aims for collaboration and partnerships both among the students as well as with members of the community. This book group met those challenges and created an enriching experience. The students answered my questions and I answered theirs. I was part of the group, not a guest speaker. I participated, they included me. I learned from them, they learned from me. How cool is that?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Susan Binkley (PhD) is an adjunct professor of French. She attended the progressive elementary school associated with Kent State University as a child (unfortunately the school closed many years ago) and is a firm believer in progressive education. Her two daughters attended Wickliffe Progressive Elementary School in Upper Arlington, Ohio, where she taught French in the After School Discovery program. You may contact her at susan@jonahsaquarium.com.