Read, and then talk about books!
Cathlin Shahriary, a fourth grade dual language teacher in Lewisville, Texas, created a "secret book society" to generate some excitement around reading at her school:
"I decided to make my book club a secret book club (like fight club but instead of fighting, we read and talk about books). First, I set up guidelines for the secret book club. Ideally, I wanted to use books that I had already read so I could discuss them with the students. ...I started by drafting a letter ... stating that I had selected the student to be a member of the Secret Book Society and to participate all they had to do was read the book and write me a letter with their thoughts about the book. ...."
Mike Murray is trying a similar activity at his school. Click here for the letter he is planning to use. (You could use it with students or staff, or both!) Here's another version to use.
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