Book Clubs with Purpose

Literature Circles with defined roles can be a useful structure to support students' understanding of the sorts of thinking that effective readers do while reading... but they can also become very formulaic and at their worst devolve into a "taking up of homework" experience as students sequentially share their work with little investment or discussion.

A Book Club approach with an open challenge to  students to demonstrate their understanding  of their text and analysis skills removes the rigid structure of the roles from the Literature Circle and can lead to more adult and interesting discussions by students, but without some focus the Book Club may stall as students may require prompting to move the discussion forward. I like this format and enjoy sitting in with students taking part in Book Clubs (or Novel Seminars) and providing the occasional nudge. I find these are rich assessment opportunities, and that the students enjoy the freedom and take up the challenge.

Lately, I've found I can give the discussions a boost -- particularly with students who are already familiar with the format, by adding a pre-meeting task to the process. By giving the group a short article or image to consider immediately prior to the Book Club / Novel Seminar meeting I can spark additional analysis and challenge the group to extend their understanding of their text further. I find this is particularly useful when a group is meeting for the second or third time as they work through their text.

This article by Hannah Gersen from The Millions website ("Thinking By A Novelist About Writing")is an example of the sort of text I like to use prime the discussion pump in an effort to deepen the Book Club discussion. I've added a few prompts at the end to frame the conversation...but I would expect the group to engage in a conversation not read prepared answers at one another.

Other articles with Book Club discussion prompts:  Novel Discussion Group Articles