Japan Book Club Association

OVERVIEW

Definition of book club by Japan Book-club Association(JBA) is as follows:

1.Book Club is a teaching method for teaching Japanese language for Japanese students. 
2.It uses books, picture books and teaching materials of school text books. 
3.It emphasizes to understand the material clearly, answer open ended questions which 
  is necessary to understand the themes, discuss and write about it.

History of JBA is as follows:

NPO-Japan Book Club Association (JBA) was founded in 2012 by Hidefumi Arimoto and his study group members. Arimoto had been developed a kind of Book Club method since early 2000s based on his theory of communication, literacy, cognitive science, counselling and reading education.

But Japan Book Club Association was actually started by introducing Book Club method which was founded by Taffy Raphael and her colleagues. Arimoto visited Chicago to meet with Raphael and he learned from her the Book Club, in 2010. He then founded the NPO-JBA. The NPO had successfully developed the unique method which is appropriate for Japanese teachers and students, which is not always same as American method.

Purpose of JBA is as follows:

to develop children's thinking and communication skills by reading books, writing about questions and discussing about it.

Goals of JBA are as follows:

(1)to develop teachers' teaching skills by teachers' seminars,
(2)to develop teachers' reading and discussing skills by adult book clubs and
(3)to train teachers by seminars for children.

Major components of JBA are as follows:

1.Study Group for teaching students,
2.Book Club for adults as a basis for teaching, 
3.Book Club Child Seminar for children.

Outline of JBA is as follows:

38(11/10/2016) teachers belong it and study, practice and develop the teaching strategy.

It is based on American teaching strategy but it was changed because of cultural and institutional differences between USA and Japan. It also includes some uniqueness because of tremendous amount of practices in Japanese classrooms, which the members had accomplished.

In short, it owed a great deal by Book Club which was developed by Taffy Raphael and her colleagues but JBA developed its own unique method and practices.

PROBLEMS

Problems of Japanese thinking skills and communication skills

In 1951, Douglas MacArthur told;
“Measured by the standards of modern civilization, they (Japanese) would be like a boy of twelve as compared with our development of 45 years.”
Although Japan has long tradition, Japanese thinking skills and communication skills are far from European standards. 
In my opinion, it is not an inferiority of our culture, it is just a difference. But we must change a lot so as to participate in international community.

Reason of introducing book club is as follows:

Introducing book club which emphasizes thinking and communication skills is most necessary for Japanese students because lack of these skills are serious problems.

Problems of Japanese students are as follows:

1.They can not answer clearly, Yes or No.
2.They can not speak opinions clearly with persuasive evidences.
3.They can not criticize other opinions constructively.
4.They can not make a consensus by discussing in small groups.
5.They can not share public opinions in a big community.

In short, many of us, including students, lack global communication skills, which were developed by western tradition, especially American standards for communication.

Obstacles for introducing Book Club in Japanese classrooms are as follows:

1.Class size is forty students in a class, which is usually twice than advanced countries.
2.Class hours for Japanese Language are five to eight hours per week which is usually 
  less than half of United States.
3.Teachers must usually use only school text books and they usually do not have time for 
  reading other books in classrooms.
4.Teachers’ working hour is longest in the world by mainly doing tremendous amount of    
  non-teaching works, for example to prepare for school sports day, writing news letters
  for parents and so on. But many teachers can not take part in professional development 
  program outside school.

• [24] Japan Times

Main academic problems of Japanese students are as follows:

1.They can not express their opinions frankly.
2.They can not express logically with persuasive evidences.
3.They can not solve problems by critically discussing each other.
4.They can not choose and read books by their own initiatives.
5.They can not understand books clearly with clear evidences.
6.They seldom read books, even manga. Instead they spend a lot of time on computer games.

Teachers’ problems of their teaching strategies are as follows:

1.They excessively emphasize to understand feelings of main characters and feelings of   
  students who read texts.
2.They do not require students to express logical reasoning of students.
3.They seldom ask students to discuss by exchanging each other.
4.They do not require problem solving skills by criticizing each other.
5.They usually ignore back ground knowledge of authors and stories.
6.They do not require unique independent opinions of students.

BOOK CLUB IN JAPAN

Theoretical backgrounds for American book club

Back ground for American book club

Book club has been used by teachers across the USA for over ten years, in 2002. 
In 1989, original project team for book club started in Michigan State University; Book Club was conceptualized in the early to mid 1990s.

Guided principles for book club are as follows:

1.Language is fundamental for thinking
2.Literacy’s disciplinary base is literature
3.Literature is both a mirror reflecting our own lives and a window into society

Book club is based on sociocultural theories which suggest that

all individual learning begins through interactions in which learners can interact with peers and more knowledgeable others.

Theoretical back grounds of American book club are mainly based on following theories.

• Vygotskian perspective

Key concepts from vygotskian perspective are as follows:
The role of language in the development of thought.
The zone of proximal development which is "the distance between the actual development level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers. p86.

• Bakhtin’s Speech Genre theory

1. Word meanings are constructed in social context.
2. Interactions occur within particular speech patterns or speech genres.

• Reader-text relationships by Rosenblatt

Rosenblatt argued that meaning existed as the result of the interaction between the reader and text not solely within one or the other

Theoretical backgrounds for Japanese book club

Arimoto learned book club which had been developed by Taffy Raphael and her colleagues by books and academic papers in Japan and he went to Chicago to meet her and her colleagues and observed several classrooms in which Book Club has been introduced.
In addition to theoretical back grounds for American book club Arimoto introduced unique theoretical back grounds.

introducing global communication skills

In 1994, Arimoto surveyed at San Diego, California and observed classrooms in elementary, secondary, high school and university. He videotaped and analyzed classrooms of group discussion, debate and speech and found the speech-communication teaching skills of American teachers.

Global communication skills are important foundation for us to introduce American book club because Japanese communication style is completely different from American standards for speech communication.

He then introduced it in Japanese classrooms by publishing books and academic papers.

introducing counselling skills

In 1997 and 1999, Arimoto visited Adelaide, South Australia and London in 1999 to survey about anti-bullying strategies because suicide cases caused by bullying frequently happened in Japan at that time but no prevention strategies was introduced in Japan. Australia and England had also hard time by similar bullying cases and intervention programs were highly developed.

In both countries, intervention was developed by introducing counselling skills for teachers and students.

In the teaching strategies for developing communication skills, counselling skills are most necessary for teachers to introduce American book club as follows.

1.Active listening skills are important for teachers because if teachers do not 
 listen to students they never be able to encourage students to talk.
2.In the active-listening, teachers must use skills such as
 Accept everything, feel empathy, encourage students
 But teachers must not criticize and deny students’ feeling and thoughts

In 2000, Arimoto had participated counselling workshops in California State University at Fresno and learned basic counselling skills, and then he used them in reading education.

introducing Spanish reading method

In 1999, 2000 and 2001, Arimoto visited Montserrat Sarto in Madrid, who developed seventy five strategies for reading education which is called "Animacion a la lectura(Animation to the reading) .

The Spanish reading method emphasizes fun of reading by using games, but the real purpose is developing critical thinking for reading.

Arimoto had been participated in the seminars for Animacion and introduced the teaching strategies to Japanese teachers, later.

The Spanish reading method are important foundation for Japanese book club because it emphasizes fun to read, critical reading and discussing to understand the themes of books.

Goal of Japanese book club

Goal of Japanese book club

Our goal has been to create a conceptual framework to guide teachers in literacy education that emphasizes critical thinking, interpretation, and text comprehension. 
Primary goal is to create a context within which students engage in meaningful conversation about the book.

By reading good books and discussing in small groups, students must

1.understand and develop one’s minds for love and justice,
2.understand and respect each other by having good conversation,
3.understand and change society by critically reading books and solve problems by 
  discussing each other,
4.understand and love every creature, natural beings and our planet by learning from 
  books, and
5.understand life and our world by connecting books to other books, movies, TV programs 
  and other social media.

Literacy skills for reading books

Literacy skills for reading books are as follows:

1.critical reading skills
2.creative reading skills
3.personal reading skills
4.speed writing skills
5.persuasive writing skills
6.speech communication skills
7.discussion skills
8.presentation skills

Teaching skills for book club

Teaching skills for book club are as follows:

1.Selecting books which is most appropriate for children
2.Give necessary background knowledge for reading the book
3.Ask appropriate questions for the children
4.Model necessary skills for the children
5.Scaffold children when necessary
6.Introduce character maps when necessary
7.Introduce sequence chart when necessary
8.Introduce roll playing when necessary
9.Ask big questions and discuss
10.Introduce writing for the big question
11.Introduce speed writing

How to select books?

Teachers must select books by following criterion.

1.It can change the reader by thinking deeply in their life.
2.It can change the reader by thinking deeply in their surrounding society.
3.It can change the reader by thinking deeply in their environment.
4.It is appropriate for their language ability in vocabulary and sentence complexity.
5.It must be interested by most of students.
6.It must be appropriate for discussing about their lives, society and environment.

Teachers' questions for book club

Followings are questions which teachers use in book club.

1.Background questions
  Asking necessary knowledge to understand the story
2.Predicting questions
  Predicting what will happen next
3.Why questions
  Asking the cause and reason of characters or author’s comments
4.Critical questions
  Asking to criticize or judge about character’s actions, words and thinking 
  Asking to criticize about plots or author’s crafts and expression
5.Personal questions
  Asking about experiences of students which is similar to characters'
  Asking if students were character’s situation what would they do?
6.Creative questions
  Asking to create another solution which is different from the story
7.Theme questions
  Asking the themes of the story or the lesson which the author tried to communicate with    
  readers

Big question

Big question is most important for teaching of Japan Book Club Association because discussion is most important and big question is necessary for the discussion to inquire themes.

Purpose of the big question is as follows:

To think deeply into the most important parts of the story which are main themes.
To think deeply about student themselves and surrounding community and society.

Big question must be as follows:

1.It attracts students’ interest.
2.It is related to the most important parts of the story or theme.
3.It is easy for students to answer.
4.Opinions must be divided in students. It must not be similar opinions.
5.Teacher should not force questions which they like.
6.Teacher must not answer the question by him/herself.
7.Priority is not what teachers want to question but what students want to answer.

Speed writing

Purpose of speed writing is to make students to open their heart to express opinions and feelings.

1.Do not care for misspelling and grammatical mistakes, because expressing a lot of words 
  is more important than correct grammar and spelling.
2.Do not care for expressing in a logical format, because expressing freely their 
  thoughts and feeling is more important than logical format.

Book club discussion

After answering the big question,

students must discuss each other with a small group of students
Best number of students must be four.

1.If students can not discuss in a small group they must discuss in a whole class and 
  teacher must be a moderator.
2.If students can discuss in a small group they must choose a moderator or leader in 
  the group, who has necessary skills.
3.The leader of the group must encourage students to speak who are quiet and they must 
  stop students who talk too much.
4.If students do not stay on the topic the leader must make them return to that.
5.If possible, students must make a consensus of the group by mutually understand and 
  make a compromise.

Whole class room discussion

After the book club discussion,

1.the leader of the each group talks about what they were talking and
2.by the teacher’s facilitation, students discuss each other about the big question.

Evaluation

Teacher mainly evaluate about students’

a.response to teacher’s question in the interactive read aloud, 
b.reading log writing skills, 
c.group discussion skills and 
d.whole class discussion skills.

SPECIFIC FEATURES OF JAPANESE BOOK CLUB

Specific features of Japanese book club which are different from American one is as follows:

1.School text books are main materials because teachers can not easily use other 
  materials by bureaucratic pressure.
2.Forty five to fifty minutes in a day is a usual time for the book club. It is about 
  half of U.S.
3.Picture books can be used after and before school text book materials but teachers can 
  not use a lot of books because of the time limitation.
4.It is not easy to use thick books because of the time limitation.

SUCCESSES OF JAPANESE BOOK CLUB

Successes of Japanese book club are as follows:

1.Many teachers who practiced book club feel that it encourages students enjoying 
 reading books and literature.
2.Teachers realized the effectiveness of the methods to understand correctly the books 
  by using character maps and sequence charts and they know that correct understanding 
  is a necessary step to participate in book club discussion.
3.Techers are becoming experts to know good books which are appropriate for book 
  club discussion.
4.Teachers are becoming experts to know the way to find the best questions and big 
  questions for book club discussion.
5.Book Club is also effective for special education children because they improve their 
  oral communication skills and writing skills dramatically.

FUTURE OF JAPANESE BOOK CLUB

Future of Japanese book club must be as follows:

1.Book club method should be the most important teaching method in Japanese 
  language teaching, instead of traditional Japanese teaching methods.
2.Every teaching material should be taught in book club method in the final stage of 
  our education.
3.Gradually materials should be changed from school text books to children’s books or 
  novels.
4.Book club methods should be penetrating into every Japanese language classrooms.
5.Students must be familiar with book club methods and they can use strategies and skills 
  of book club method.
6.Japan must be the model for the world by practicing book club in every classroom 
  on the basis of extremely high performance levels of students and teachers which has 
  been the long tradition of Japanese culture.

REFERENCES(PAPERS AND BOOKS)

English papers and books

• Bakhtin, Speech genres and other late essays, 1986
• Barbara Guzzetti (Ed), Literacy in America: An Encyclopedia of History, Theory, and *Practice, Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO Publishers., 2002, pp. 469–473
• Raphael, Book Club: A literature-based Curriculum, Small Planet Communications 1997, 2002
• Raphael, Book Club for Middle School, Small Planet Communications, 2001
• Raphael, Book Club plus: A Literacy Framework for the Primary Grades, Small Planet Communications, 2004
• Raphael, Questioning, Oakland University
• Raphael, Thinking for Ourselves: Literacy Learning in a Diverse Teacher Inquiry Network, Article 00-07
• Raphael, Book Club +: A Framework for Teaching Critical Thinking, Comprehension, and Writing, NYSRA 2002
• Raphael, Book Club: Making Literature Come Alive in the Classroom, 2003 Presentations in PowerPoint
• Rosenblatt, Literature as Exploration, 1976
• Vygotsky, Mind in society, 1978
• Arimoto, Multi Centered Situated Learning: Reconsidering" Legitimate Peripheral Participation pp2–22, Research Bulletin of the National Institute of Research Institute of Japan, 1997 No.28
• Arimoto, Development of Curricula and Methods for Training and Student Assessment to Foster Reading Literacy, 2009, National Institute of Educational Research, *[25]

Japanese papers

• 「にじいろのさかな」で楽しくブッククラブ―ロールプレイの導入で子どもの心を開くー、ブッククラブ研究２０１７（掲載予定）、日本ブッククラブ協会*

Book Club by “Rainbow Fish”-Open Children’s mind by roll playing (now printing) Book Club Study, 2017, Japan Book Club Association

• ブッククラブで子どもの心を開く―「にじいろのさかな」で楽しくロールプレイ、ブッククラブ研究２０１７（掲載予定）、日本ブッククラブ協会*

Arimoto, Open the minds of students by book club-roll playing with “Rainbow Fish”.(now printing) Book Club Study, 2017, Japan Book Club Association

• 「リスニングサービス」における学習の拡張:少女たちが耳を傾けるとき

国立教育研究所研究集録 38 1999.3 Arimoto, Expanding learning by listening service of high school girls of U.K., National Institute for Educational Research 38.

• いじめや暴力を解消するためのピアサポートの学習―学習理論によるピアサポートの評価

国立教育研究所研究集録 37 1998.9 Arimoto, Peer support for reducing bullying and violence in South Australia., National Institute for Educational Research 37

• オーストラリアの教室で見た、いじめ解消のためのコミュニケーション技能の開発

国立教育研究所研究集録 35 1997.9 Arimoto, developing communication skills for reducing bullying in Australian class s rooms, National Institute for Educational Research 35.

• 子供が討論に参加する時―小学生の討論の会話分析

国立教育研究所研究集録 32 1996.3 Arimoto, Conversation analysis of Japanese elementary school students’ class room discussion, National Institute for Educational Research, 32

• 「自己実現」の道具としての,スピーチコミュニケーション技能の開発: カリフォルニアの高校でみた,討論の授業の会話分析

國立教育研究所研究集録 31, 21-38, 1995 Arimoto, developing speech communication skills of Californian high school students, National Institute for Educational Research, 31

Japanese books

• 手足がなくても強く生きた中村久子物語: しょうがいについて考えよう 読んで考えて話し合う力が育つ　ブッククラブシリーズ１　[Kindle版]

Arimoto, Hisako, who does not have arms and legs but she lives strongly

• [26]
• ブッククラブ入門: 本が好きになり国語の力がどんどん育つ　だれでも明日から授業で使えます [Kindle版] *[27]

Arimoto, Introduction to Book Club.

• 小学校教科書教材でできるブッククラブ・ガイド: 有名４０教材で楽しく簡単に、読む力・考える力・話し合う力が育ちます [Kindle版]

Arimoto, Book Club by elementary school text book materials.

• 中学・高校教科書教材ブッククラブ・ガイド: 中学・高校教科書の有名１２教材 [Kindle版] https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B01BCU69AQ

Arimoto, Book Club by middle and high school text book materials.

• まともな日本語を教えない勘違いだらけの国語教育　合同出版 2012年

Arimoto, They do not teach correct Japanese language at all, which can be used in international community, 2012

• 子どもが必ず本好きになる１６の方法　実践アニマシオン　合同出版　２００５年

Arimoto, Sixteen Reading Strategies of Animacion which enable students to love books, 2005 Japanese Articles

External links

• [28] Hidefumi Arimoto
• [29] Book Club
• [30] Book discussion club
• [31] Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
• [32] International Literacy Association　
• [33] Communication
• [34] Conversation
• [35] Evaluation
• [36] Taffy Raphael
• [37] Japan Book Club Association website
• [38] Japan Book Club Association blog
• [39] Japan Book Club Association face book
• [40] Hidefumi Arimoto face book
• [41] Hidefumi Arimoto blog

References

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