Cranbury School students who love to read and are eager to venture into challenging literature for their grade level are in luck.
By: Lacey Korevec
Cranbury School students who love to read and are eager to venture into challenging literature for their grade level are in luck.
Breakfast Book Club, a new program being piloted at Cranbury School, encourages students to read books for fun that are more difficult than what their classmates are reading. Students who participate are assigned a book to read over a period of weeks and are invited to arrive at school early on Friday mornings to discuss with one another what they have read.
Each grade level is assigned a different book. Currently, the second-graders are reading "Bunnicula" by Deborah Howe, James Howe and Alan Daniel, the third-graders are reading "The Island of the Blue Dolphins" by Scott O’Dell and the fourth-graders are reading "A Family Apart" by Joan Lowery Nixon.
Currently, the program is only open to students in grades two through four. Carol Rogaski, Cranbury school teacher of the gifted and talented students, along with English teacher Judith Ulinsky and library teacher Rebecca Lichtner, are coordinating the club.
"It’s just one of those nice things that can be arranged and doesn’t take a lot of extra cost to do," Ms. Rogaski said. "It’s just a great idea for a program that can really encourage students to continue a love of learning."
Ms. Rogaski, who is working with the third-graders in the program, said the idea for the club came from Ms. Ulinsky, who recognized that there are a number of avid readers at Cranbury School.
"We wanted to provide an opportunity for them to get together and discuss and maybe read a book together," Ms. Rogaski said.
On March 2, the teachers held an orientation session for interested students and Ms. Rogaski said the teachers were flabbergasted at how many showed up and were eager to get started.
"We went down to greet them at the main doors and we were really pleasantly happy to see how many kids were interested and had signed up," she said. "In the group I did, they all seemed interested in being there and were very enthusiastic. The kids really are interested in sinking their teeth into some good books."
Ms. Rogaski said there are about 15 students from each grade participating. Ms. Ulinsky is working with the fourth-graders and Ms. Lichtner is working with the second-graders. Each grade will work on a separate book for a series of weeks. Since the club is for fun, Ms. Rogaski said the students can take their time getting through the books.
"This is an optional thing and we don’t want to put so much pressure on them that they have to read a book a week," she said. "So, it goes at a nice pace for them."
Since the club will expose students to difficult literature that they can enjoy and relate, it will have a positive impact on their future as students and readers, she said.
"One of the things that has been highly linked with how well the kids do in school and reading in general is how much pleasure reading they do," she said. "The more they can read a book, the more interesting it will be for them. All those types of things will lead to an environment where hopefully they will want to pick up more books and keep reading."
Depending on how the program goes during this marking period, Ms. Rogaski said it’s possible that the program will expand in the future and be open to other grade levels, but it’s still too early to determine its fate.
"There’s always a chance that something can be expanded," she said. "I’m not sure at this point."

