By Maria Grenyer
We can all see what’s been happening in recent years. Screen use has exploded, and the time that anyone spends with a physical book in their hands has dropped off – massively so, in the case of younger people.
Many of my students are less than enthusiastic at the prospect of even talking about books, let alone reading them. I started working at the British Council (BC) a year ago; teachers will know that during the first lessons it’s natural to try and chat as much as you can to get to know students. As a bookworm, I talked about reading, but I was somewhat alarmed to find that only one or two students in each of my classes read on a regular basis.
I took it personally. Something had to be done, and I came up with a simple but in my experience effective solution. I organised a book club. First, I started it with one of my groups of young learners (11-13 years old), then with other groups, and after a while I was organising book clubs for anyone willing to come and chat about books.
As this was my first experience doing so, I read a lot about hosting such events – which is probably the most book-clubbish way to prepare for a book club. At the BC we had an online campaign advertising it, and I prepared months in advance. On the first day of the club there were 4 people. Four students interested enough in books to come. We talked about ‘The Lord of the Flies’ and the time flew by. The next meeting, we talked about one of Bradbury’s short stories – by this point there were about 10 people. Fast forward to the last meeting of the year and the classroom was full, with the students discussing a classic by Oscar Wilde, ‘The Selfish Giant’.
The strategies I implemented
Leading a book club is not the same as teaching a reading skills lesson (but there are similarities).
We all know the structure for a standard reading lesson, though as Stephen Tarbuck points out in Issue 54 of the IH Journal, other approaches are possible!
What I do follows this pattern: firstly, pre-reading activities that may include activating the past schemata or prediction. Then, set activities for the reading to discuss the content of the book and make students think about the plot, the characters, any literary devices used, and possibly make predictions for what’s going to happen next – unless it’s a short story.
Finally, after the reading part should come the response (depending on the level of students): reinvent the ending, drawing an illustration for the story, writing a story about a side character or a missing scene, acting out a part from the book; basically anything you can come up with.
I have found that varying activities helps a lot, even though for every meeting there were many newcomers. Keeping it fresh was vital to keep the students engaged and guessing – there always needed to be some kind of novelty to keep the attendees engaged.
It was impossible to guess who was going to join each month, and I had no idea about the students’ level and what activities would be appropriate for them. The lowest level the participants could be was Pre-Intermediate, but of course, even at Pre-Intermediate the students usually vary in skills and abilities: some are better at reading, but find it difficult to speak, while some have trouble with grammar but aren’t afraid of using the vocabulary they know in speaking. Some students couldn’t “pretend to interview the author”, but they could illustrate the story beautifully. So I had to adapt.
The Choice of Reading Material
Selecting level-appropriate material was also a challenge. I wanted to introduce my students to stories in English by classic authors, like Oscar Wilde and Ray Bradbury. However, authentic texts are undeniably difficult to read, especially for lower level students, and I didn’t want to use graded materials for a couple of reasons.
First, most of the levelled books are downright boring. Yes, the story is sure to be simple enough for weaker students to understand, but at what cost? My aim was to encourage reading, not to do the opposite! I also felt that using graded readers would make the book club feel too much like an extension of their regular classes – but I wanted to make a clear division between lesson material and book club material.
Second, I believed that with enough scaffolding (pre-teaching the words that could pose more difficulty, encouraging prediction with the help of images connected to the story) it would be possible for all to enjoy the story, even if it meant that some finer details would escape some students.
The trick was in balancing out the ‘forces’, that is, acknowledging the stronger students who wanted to discuss the story and had lots to say and making the lower-level students a part of the book club, even if they couldn’t express much.
As in any lesson where you have a distinct range of abilities, there are a few things you can do. First of all, use pair and group work. Put stronger students with the less able, so that the former can help the latter. Sure, sometimes it doesn’t work out quite as you’d like (nothing is perfect, some students get frustrated – but the more you know your students, the more able you will be to accommodate their differences). Then, you could ask a range of graded questions: make them easy, medium, and hard and distribute them to the group according to their abilities. You can also use group presentation projects, depending on how much time you have. In this case, encourage the students to take on different roles. One student can research information, the other illustrate it and so on.
The things I learned from my book club
- Never give up (even if there are only four people). As long as someone comes, it counts, and you made a difference. Also, don’t expect it to be a runaway success on day one – you wouldn’t expect a new business to turn a profit in the first month of trading, so expect it to be the same here.
- Choose challenging stories. Don’t go for safe books that avoid problems. Ask hard questions, make your students think. Look at issues together with them and try to solve them (it doesn’t matter if you don’t, but if more and more people start thinking and questioning everything from a young age, there’s more chance that the world will be a better place in the future).
- Choose activities wisely. Some teachers would advise going for some wacky tasks to stand out in the eyes of their younger learners, and sometimes that works. However, most of the time simple is good. Organising a discussion doesn’t mean you’re not putting in the effort (especially if you do it the right way, maybe by holding a debate).
- Be yourself. Be open, be honest. Kids, teens, adults – everybody values sincerity, so say what you think about the book you’re reading, about its characters, events, plot twists, and endings. If you didn’t see something coming, say so. If you laughed or cried, say so. This will help you connect with your students better and help them open up to you.
- And last but not least – enjoy it! Don’t be nervous (I definitely was at first!), just relax and remember that it’s not a class or an exam you need to help your students to pass. Yes, it is important. Yes, it will (or might) shape your students’ future and their attitude to books and reading. A book club can only be as healthy as the attitude of the person running it. So, just imagine you’re speaking to a bunch of friends and dying to know their opinion of the story!
Conclusion
It is easy to become addicted to our screens, but my experiences with running the book club has taught me something – breaking that addiction is possible, and getting people interested in reading does happen. All that you need is some structure, some positivity, and most importantly, the perseverance to make it all happen.
Biography
Maria Grenyer is a young English teacher who lives and works in Tbilisi, Georgia with the British Council. She has had the pleasure of teaching Young Learners and adults of all ages and levels and is particularly passionate about reading. It is this passion that leads her to promote reading in EFL classrooms and encourage students to discover new horizons.
In addition to her professional experience, she holds a Bachelor’s degree in teaching English and German, a CELTA and is currently undergoing a TYLEC course.
