Book Club?

[AnneBlessedx4]

Have you ever run a book club for teens? Or even been a part of one? My kids would like to start one up, and I have very little idea of how to do it.  I would love to hear your experiences.

[Julie in MN]

My son has been in a book club from 6th to 12th grades.  It's for boys, and the age range is about 3 years.  The mom who hosts it has 2 clubs for 2 different age ranges of boys.  Most years, she assigns the books and hosts the discussion.  One year she had a literature teacher lead it (with more fancy projects), and another year they did the Critical Thinking book instead.  Sometimes she throws in something different, like a video or reading our founding documents.  They've always met on Friday afternoons, after lunch but before kids start sports practice and such.

 

I don't know if we can search the old forum, I'm not coming up with anything, but I know I posted about how she set up the group in the beginning (it's morphed over the years).  She had a series of "jobs" and she rotated them through the boys each week.  They were jobs like summarizer, questioner, and illustrator... I'd have to think to remember the rest.  Some years she had more boys, so there would be "summarizer of chapter 1" and "summarizer of chapter 2."

 

In later years, she might have more book-specific assignments, like find an example of personification or a theme, or just give them a couple of thinking questions to be ready to discuss.  Her main goal was to get the boys reading and discussing.  Her motivator was that they did "phy ed" afterwards.  They usually played ice hockey outdoors in winter and basketball or football at the park in warm weather, and sometimes we all chipped in to rent an indoor gym at a bigger park when it was rainy.  I have to say, though, that my ds didn't always participate in the sports and yet he always went to book club to chat.

 

It's been an excellent motivator for my son who likes to talk and doesn't like to read, so don't be afraid to invite kids who aren't natural readers, because you need talkers, too, and this book club seems to have benefited from having talkers  :)

 

Julie

[Candid]

I think the key to any good book club is the person who runs the meetings. All the other things can be shoddy, if that person is good. 

[dirty ethel rackham]

I have helped run some for a long time.  For several years, we met monthly and had each boy bring several discussion questions.  We put them in a bowl.  We had each boy take a question out of the bowl when it was their turn, then had that boy give a stab at answering the question before opening it up the floor.  We had to prohibit certain questions like "Who was your favorite (or least favorite) character?"  "What was your favorite part?"  (Although one boy tried to get around it by putting in the question "Who was your preferred protagonist?" )  We had to educate them on the difference between a discussion question and a comprehension question.  For this type of book club, we rotated host families (and the leader.)  Right now, I am helping lead a club where we are using Literature Circle Roles in addition to having the kids bring a couple of questions for discussion.  You can google and find many examples.  Right now, we are using the following roles (very abbreviated descriptions):

Director:  Helps the group remember important details about the text (who, what, when, where, why, how).  Identify themes.  Point out specific details from the text that relate to the themes.  Asks questions (not hypothetical, but designed to job memory.)

Passagist: identifies passages that either foreshadow something, reveal something about a character, or are beautifully written or difficult to understand.  Selects passages that relate to the theme.

Connector:  Finds connections with current or past literature/arts, pop culture, world events or personal experiences.  Also connects these to the themes of the book. 

Researcher: looks up unusual or difficult vocabulary, researches author background and historical context, looks up references to songs, history, and other literary works, considers names of characters.

Psychological Critic: analyzes characters' motivations and makes inferences on how their minds work, based upon workds and actions.  What motivates each character? what is his/her state of mind?  What shapes his/her point of view?

 

 

 

[AnneBlessedx4]

This is great!  Thank you!

[dirty ethel rackham]

Oh, and we always did snack.  Teen boys and food  - a must.  But snack was reserved for after discussion:).  We usually knew it was snack time when the discussion devolved into Mythbusters references (junior high). 

[daijobu]

I think the key to any good book club is the person who runs the meetings. All the other things can be shoddy, if that person is good. 

 

I ran one for my preteen dd, but I was pretty awful.  Then I hired a lovely woman who was homeschooled herself, and she actually enjoys reading and discussing these books. She's worth every penny.