I think one of the main goals of all librarians is to help
foster the love of reading in all students.
I love to read, but I definitely prefer to read books of my own choosing
as opposed to “required reading.” I am
pretty sure that I am not alone in this.
I think a book club in school would be a great way to encourage students
to enjoy reading.
What I envision is a group of teens reading and discussing
books of their own choosing. To give a
little guidance/structure, the group would choose a theme for each month, such
as Bullying, Mental Health, Divorce, LGBT, Self Esteem, Adoption,
Relationships, Immigrant Experience in the US.
The students, as a group, would decide on a book that relates to the
theme of the month then discuss the book at the next month’s meeting.
I think the success of a club like this would come from the
fact that the students choose what they are reading and what they are
discussing. These are all topics that
affect many teens and these topics and books could generate good discussion
with their peers.
That being said, I have visions of book club grandeur in my
head, but I am not sure how to actually make it happen successfully. So many things could go wrong- no one would
show up, too many people would show up, no one would want to talk, or everyone
wants to talk.
Ilovelibraries.org has some great information about how to structure and run book club
meetings. I especially liked the idea
of how to have a book club meeting without a leader. The discussion would circulate around the room and the students would take turns sharing their thoughts on the book or if members are reluctant to
initiate discussion, then every student would get an index card and they must write
a relevant question or insight about the book.
The group would then choose several index cards to facilitate the
discussion.
Another interesting idea to help promote the book club once it is up and running came
from an article by Carianne Capalongo-Bernadowski in Library Media
Connection. Capalongo-Bernadowski
suggested that the students share their passion for reading and the books by
writing a review of the books that they read in the club.
The students could post these book reviews in a student blog on the library web
page. The blog would promote reading,
the book club and the library, plus allow students an opportunity to practice writing skills. It’s a win-win situation when students are
self-motivated to read and write.
The final key to success of a book club that I found in my
research was food. Lucas Maxwell shared
his ideas on starting a book club on Bookriot.com and it came as no surprise to me that Maxwell declared that food was always a
popular draw to any activity. I spent 11 years in the classroom and
I very quickly learned that students were always eager to participate in almost any activity when food
was involved.
Cathy G.
Capalongo-Bernadowski, C.
(2007). Book clubs at work. Library
Media Connection, 26(3), 32-3.
Maxwell, L. (2017, September 13). Ideas on starting a teen book
club in your school library.
Retrieved from https://bookriot.com/2017/09/13/ideas-teen-book-club-ilibrary/
I love the idea of having a teen book club! I had one idea as I was reading your post that I thought I would share. Since it is hard choosing a book that all students would love, maybe you could have the general topic, like you mentioned, but then have a sign up sheet for different books on the topic. Say the topic is bullying. The students could each choose a different book about that topic and write it down then everyone have a discussion about that book. It would kind of be like what we do in these classes where we each pick a different book. It might work for teens as well.
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