Book clubs in the classroom: 10 tips for success

4/19/2017

Whether you’re considering a classroom book club for the first time, or are already guiding your students through their third book this year, here’s a list of benefits and some tips for success you can employ right away!

NYC’s District 75 published their Middle School Units of Study, Developing Autonomy when Engaging with Literature, online. In it they list some of the benefits of book clubs in the classroom:

Book clubs:

Promote a love for literature and a positive attitude towards reading;
Reflect a student-centered model of literacy (employing the Gradual
Release of Responsibility);
Encourage extensive and intensive reading;
Invite natural discussions that lead to student inquiry and critical
Thinking;
Support diverse responses to text;
Foster interaction, cooperation and collaboration;
Provide choice and encourage responsibility;
Expose students to literature from multiple perspectives; and
Nurture reflection and self-evaluation.

Thoughtfully planned book clubs position learning in the hands of the students and provide discussion tools students can use as they work out their responses to the book.

We provide approaches to professional development that bridge theory and practice to generate solutions that work for a multitude of schools. With that bridge in mind, enjoy the following as you think through your classroom’s book club possibilities!

10 tips for success in your classroom book club

1. Generate excitement
Reveal the book club idea, like a fun surprise, building anticipation about the “way we’re going to experience our next book together,” use pictures or video, have students create their own collage of what a book club might look like (imagine no limitations!). Draw from their collages when introducing the book club concept.

2. Share decision-making
While your book choice may be set, make as many other decisions as possible with your students: room setup, groupings (can they pair with one person and then you put the pairs together?), how the conversations flow (first we write, then we talk, then we create something in response...). You probably have all the pieces in mind. How much choice can you give the students on how those pieces are put together?

3. Communicate expectations
What are your expectations? Will each student talk/write/facilitate a certain amount? Is there a rubric you design that students can use in their groups? What sort of assessments will there be along the way? What are the students' expectations? How will I know if I’ve done what I’m supposed to do in class on book club days? What if someone in the group isn’t doing their share? What if I didn’t read last night? How do I negotiate sticky relationships in the group?

4. Establish ground rules, together.
Using your classroom guidelines/expectations, ask students to work up a set of ground rules for their groups. What does respect look like? What does disagreement look like? Do they want to use an object (whoever has the frog plushy) to indicate the speaker? What does listening look like? Some of these will need to be taught, so watch for the things that aren’t on the students’ radar yet -- you may want to prep a mini-lesson on a particular skill. Identify roles within the group. Whether they rotate the roles daily or weekly, each person knowing their role, and the expectation for this role (facilitator, scribe, reporter, etc) is a helpful handle for them to stay engaged. Every person should have a role.

5. Lead by example
Whether you start with a fishbowl of a book club group or you sit in on each group as they begin, follow through on ground rules to help students feel secure that their agreement will be supported. Follow the protocols you and the students set in place. even when it’s hard because you want to make an important point about the book but don’t have the plushy frog yet! Listen, like the students, be patient, and get that frog so you can make your point -- just like the students do. Pull the teacher card only when necessary.

6. Gather tools
Students can go into their book club groups with a toolbox (paper, highlighter, pen, templates for discussion) and you can help them add tools along the way. Look for Book Club guides that you can tweak for your students. Use our What? So What? Now What? reading tool as a regular way of guiding conversation. Dig back into your own toolbox and refresh some templates for the book club setting -- students will be familiar with the process and also experience a new way to use the tool.

7. Anticipate tough conversations
Having already read the book (you’re almost finished, right?), you’ll be able to identify which sections may bring up sticky subjects for students to discuss. You can certainly bring the groups together for discussion on something especially sensitive. Also, you can provide a tool to help them make sense of their own thoughts and feelings before they begin their group discussions. Try the Courageous Conversations template to help students sort out what they believe, think, and feel about a certain section of the book, and then what they plan or imagine they will or would Do in response.

8. Keep it student-centered
Ask yourself, as you look at your lesson plans for the next day/week/month, "Is this something a student can do/lead without sacrificing our educational goals?" If it is something a student can take on, why not have them lead it? Keep giving away what you can -- this opens up more time and energy for those things essential to your role as an educator and allows student to enlarge their investment in their own learning. For instance, do you need to do the opening reading aloud? Could a student hand out the tools for the day? Could groups collect their own responses and post them for you to review?

9. Celebrate completion
Book clubs love to celebrate! Usually it’s every time they meet, with snacks and drinks and a general good vibe because they got to get out of the house or office or daily routine to talk about something they enjoy: reading. Give your students a bit of that experience. Plan a celebration at the end of the book. Use the theme of the book to guide how you might celebrate — can there be some food or drinks or decorations or fun activity you engage in to mark the end of the the book club experience? You know what we’re going to say next: plan it together! Get creative and have fun.

10. Share your ideas below
You’ve got a lot of experience. You’ve got a lot of ideas. You’ve tried things out that have worked great and have tanked miserably! Share your wisdom and experience with other teachers by commenting below!

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13 Comments

Susanna Smith

2/15/2018 06:59:36 pm

I am just introducing book clubs to our school (it's my first year here). This district is very interested in how we assess our students. Other that through writing and anecdotal notes during conversation, are there any rubrics or other ways to assess work during book clubs?

Roberta link

3/21/2018 03:07:49 pm

Hi Susanna,

Sorry it took a bit to get back to you. Yeah! We have a lot of ideas about how to use book clubs in the classroom, and some traditional and creative methods of assessing book club work. I think the first thing to think about is always: What are my goals? What do you hope students will be able to know and do, after participating in a book club?

While I might shy away from standardized rubrics that don't take into consideration your goals for your kids, you could design your own rubric as well as your own book club assessments. For example, when I had my classes do book clubs, we had a focus for each week that asked the students to look at different elements of the genre ... so when reading fiction, we might spend one week looking at our characters, one week on setting, one week on conflicts ... then kids would have graphic organizers, small group discussions, and a mini project due at the end of the week.

To assess the daily work of book clubs, a self-assessment/peer assessment might also be a good choice. You can have traits such as "independent reading; discussion; and active listening" might be things that you want students to focus on during their book club time, but can be hard to assess.

Feel free to contact me to talk more about these or other idea!

Best,
Roberta

Carleigh Taylor

1/5/2019 05:50:10 pm

This is a great post! I am starting book clubs in my Reading Workshop this semester and have been researching the best way to do them. What is your opinion on assigning the different groups based on reading level? My students have different reading ranges (of course, but some are much lower than others), and I was thinking it would be best to assign them groups based on their general range and assign their group a level-appropriate book. This takes away two avenues of student choice however. What are your thoughts? Thank you!

Faith

11/17/2019 08:40:57 pm

Thank you for your question, and apologies for the delayed response!

I'd love to hear what you decided on this. You can bring more choice back into the equation if you want to group kids by reading level if you offer them several book choices that will fit meet them where they are.

I would also consider intentionally mixing reading levels at times, so that your students can learn from one another. You can differentiate by creating roles that would challenge your higher level readers or offering companion articles or texts to support growth and deeper learning experiences.

Kayla

2/26/2019 09:39:24 am

My high school has a student lead book club and I was elected our president. Do you have any activity ideas? This is my first time running a club and having a teacher depend on me to create activities is both amazing and kind of stressful. Anything helps :)

8/14/2020 04:31:23 pm

My apologies for not seeing your comment before now! I'd love to hear how it went for you. What were you able to do that you'd recommend to others? How was your stress level as you implemented the book club ideas?

Gabriel link

4/17/2019 08:24:21 pm

Great tips, thanks!

Ashley link

10/8/2019 12:56:16 am

I liked that you said that one reason to consider reading educational books is that they help you to understand your thoughts and feelings better. I have been feeling overwhelmed with school and work and haven't been able to explain my emotions well. I will be sure to consider reading educational books to help me better understand my emotions.

8/14/2020 04:29:19 pm

I hope you've been able to find books and articles that support you in understanding your thoughts and feelings. Both reading and writing can be such a powerful way to discover for yourself what it is you feel.

One author, Joan Didion said, "I don't know what I think until I write it down."

That's how it works for me, too.

Luke Smith link

11/8/2019 05:04:39 pm

I appreciate you highlighting encouraging your student to invest their leaning by using books. My cousin, who just recently passed the licensure for teachers, will be teaching grade school pupils. She wants to encourage them to read books that's why I will share this article with her, so she can build her own book club that can lead her students to love books.

G. Faith

8/14/2020 04:26:58 pm

Fantastic. A few months ago I would picture a book corner or some area in the classroom where your cousin's students could read and talk together. Now, I can imagine finding ways to read books "together" and then share thoughts and questions through drawings or during an online discussion. The possibilities are there for us -- it's always good to connect and learn more, together.

Alicia Byrne link

8/14/2020 12:35:50 am

I think that you made a good point on using tools to make the book club more interactive. I was thinking of buying activity books for my son so that we can do it together over the weekends. Perhaps I can incorporate some of your ideas into making the reading session with my son more interesting.

8/14/2020 04:23:53 pm

That's wonderful, Alicia -- taking ideas and tweaking them so they work for you and your son is a good idea. I feel there is really no end to the possibilities when we see how we can customize them in our homes and classrooms.

One Book,
One New York