Literature
In class, we are currently reading a book. The choice is between The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and About a boy. See how we introduced the topic and how the students made a choice here.
Today’s topic is to simulate a good club. A lot of people join book clubs to get tips on interesting books and to be able to discuss the book with others who have read it too. And don’t think about watching the movie, because it is quite different from the book!
Lesson plan
- In groups of 4 prepare for your book club meeting. Find out which page you are on and form groups that have read approximately the same amount of pages.
- Look at the questions below and decide on how many you have time to discuss and which ones you want to include. Source: BookRiot.
- Go back to your desk and prepare the discussion. What words do you need to look up? Are you there some things you need to look up in the book? Take notes to bring to the discussion
- In your group of 4 number up and take on these roles; 1. time taker, each member gets equal time to talk. 2. Encourager, compliment the person who answers and helps them if they are looking for words. 3. The organizer, the one who asks the questions and makes sure everyone gets to answer. 4. makes sure everyone is polite and that nobody cuts off or interrupts the conversation. Look here for 10 helpful ways to have a conversation.
GENERAL BOOK CLUB DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. What did you like best about this book?
2. What did you like least about this book?
3. What other books did this remind you of?
5. Which characters did you like least?
6. If you were making a movie of this book, who would you cast?
7. Share a favorite quote from the book. Why did this quote stand out?
9. Would you read another book by this author? Why or why not?
10. What feelings did this book evoke for you?
11. What did you think of the book’s length? If it’s too long, what would you cut? If too short, what would you add?
12. What songs does this book make you think of? Create a book group playlist together!
13. If you got the chance to ask the author of this book one question, what would it be?
14. Which character in the book would you most like to meet?
15. Which places in the book would you most like to visit?
16. What do you think of the book’s title? How does it relate to the book’s contents? What other title might you choose?
17. What do you think of the book’s cover? How well does it convey what the book is about? If the book has been published with different covers, which one do you like best?
18. What do you think the author’s purpose was in writing this book? What ideas was he or she trying to get across?
19. How original and unique was this book?
20. If you could hear this same story from another person’s point of view, who would you choose?
21. What artist would you choose to illustrate this book? What kinds of illustrations would you include?
BOOK CLUB DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR FICTION
22. Did this book seem realistic?
23. How well do you think the author built the world in the book?
24. Did the characters seem believable to you? Did they remind you of anyone?
25. Did the book’s pace seem too fast/too slow/just right?
26. If you were to write fanfic about this book, what kind of story would you want to tell?
Love the idea to simulate a good book club! Did they decide to read
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian or About a boy? I so want to read the Diary of a part time Indian and review it! I heard it is a great book, but it is banned in the schools of a few states because of sexual contest, violence , and profanity. But all the great books are wrongly banned from schools sooner or later. 😉
They were given the choice to pick one of these two. You can read their reflections on the choices on my web site. All my students’ blogs are listed to the right. Look forward to how the book club works out.