It can be difficult to know where to start when running a book club meeting for pupils. Once you have decided on the text and the aims of the book club, here are some ideas of a structure that you could follow.
This article assumes that an adult will be running the book club. However, some schools use Reading Champions or Reading Ambassadors. The idea for the structure should be similar, you will just need to give pupils running it a bit more support.
Encouraging Discussion
Start by encouraging pupils to talk about their favourite books or books that they have enjoyed reading recently. Or it could be their favourite text or comic, depending on the group of pupils. Perhaps a book has been turned into a film, has anyone seen it and how did it compare to the book? Having a range of icebreaker questions to hand would be useful.
Read Aloud
Encourage a range of pupils to read aloud, if they would like to. Avoid forcing anyone to do this. You might find that they choose to read aloud when others volunteer to.
Ask open ended questions and encourage pupils to also come up with some of their own. Questions can focus on themes, characters, or opinions about aspects of the text. For example, how do you think Sebastian felt when he forgot about the class assembly and how do you know this?
Some schools use particular frameworks for questioning such as the Aidan tell me approach. This method avoids the role of the teacher as an expert but instead valuing all readers as contributors. It focuses on likes, dislikes, puzzles and patterns and connections.
Plan Engaging Activities
Depending on the pupils, consider using drama to act out what they think will happen next in the book. Or maybe think about creating a podcast, a reading blog post or something similar about the book that they are reading. Some schools also write letters to the author of the book or take part in virtual author visits.
Final Thoughts
At the end of each book club summarise the key points, opinions and any ongoing questions. Ask pupils if there is anything that they particularly enjoyed about the session or anything else they would like to explore and use this to inform future planning.
If are in the planning stage of creating your book club, take a look at our article about encouraging pupil participation in your book club.
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