Do you love reading? You probably do if you’re reading this. Starting a student-led book club is the perfect way to further support your students who are avid readers (and maybe a few you didn’t expect would be interested).
You might be intimidated by the idea of starting a book club. Before my first club meeting, I was afraid my students would show up and be crickets, so I overprepared with a game, discussion questions, etc. But, to my delight, they were actively involved, and we didn’t end up needing my prepared materials.
What a relief.
A helpful thing to remember is students who sign up for an after-school book club generally want to be there.
So, if you want to start a book club for your students, these tips based on my experience might help:
For voting, you could hold a super short meeting where students pass around the books and cast a vote on their way out. You could also do it virtually.
My club has a tradition where each time we play a review game of a book, the winner gets a free copy of the next month’s book. This is a great way to keep kids involved, and I found that the winner of the free book is more likely to keep showing up the next month.
I started my book club when we were in-person, but we’ve adapted to continue the club virtually. Now I run it through Google Classroom, and students can vote or post questions, talk about the book, etc.
We also use Kahoot virtually. When we met in-person, we participated in get-out-of-your-seat games or just talked more about the book (sometimes they really just want to keep talking about it).
You can get creative with this. My school participates in AR point goals for ELA, and students can score better on AR tests if they participate in the book club. But it doesn’t have to be AR-related. Have fun with it!
This is another place you can get creative. We use Jamboard to start meetings virtually. I’ll type out a question, and students post sticky notes to answer it as the opening activity. Most of the time, three general questions about the book will be enough. I often use “what did you like most?”, “what did you like least?”, and usually one about the ending, especially if it was a cliff hanger!
You might be intimidated by the idea of starting a book club. Before my first club meeting, I was afraid my students would show up and be crickets, so I overprepared with a game, discussion questions, etc. But, to my delight, they were actively involved, and we didn’t end up needing my prepared materials.
What a relief.
A helpful thing to remember is students who sign up for an after-school book club generally want to be there.
So, if you want to start a book club for your students, these tips based on my experience might help:
- Advertise it around school and have a meeting.
- Pick a genre/theme for each month.
- Let students recommend books, then pick a few and let them vote.
For voting, you could hold a super short meeting where students pass around the books and cast a vote on their way out. You could also do it virtually.
- Make sure students can get their hands on the books.
- Add something fun.
My club has a tradition where each time we play a review game of a book, the winner gets a free copy of the next month’s book. This is a great way to keep kids involved, and I found that the winner of the free book is more likely to keep showing up the next month.
- Consider virtual elements.
I started my book club when we were in-person, but we’ve adapted to continue the club virtually. Now I run it through Google Classroom, and students can vote or post questions, talk about the book, etc.
We also use Kahoot virtually. When we met in-person, we participated in get-out-of-your-seat games or just talked more about the book (sometimes they really just want to keep talking about it).
- Create incentives.
You can get creative with this. My school participates in AR point goals for ELA, and students can score better on AR tests if they participate in the book club. But it doesn’t have to be AR-related. Have fun with it!
- Have a plan.
This is another place you can get creative. We use Jamboard to start meetings virtually. I’ll type out a question, and students post sticky notes to answer it as the opening activity. Most of the time, three general questions about the book will be enough. I often use “what did you like most?”, “what did you like least?”, and usually one about the ending, especially if it was a cliff hanger!
- Be flexible!