Discussion Questions for Book Clubs

My students were struggling with have deep discussion in their spring book clubs. The problem may just be that they’re seniors and they are “sooooo over school.” But I felt like there was more to it. So I introduced them to a Literary Analysis Discussion Deck. These discussion questions for book clubs and more became the foundation of our spring units.

We literally used them for everything: warm-ups, assessments, full class discussion, book club discussions. They is simply so versatile.

Literature Discussion Decks are the bee's knees for encouraging high school English students to have effective and thoughtful book club discussions.

Discussion Decks for Better Literary Analysis

I started with the idea of wanting a series of topics that would lead the students to better discussion questions for book clubs. I needed discussion topics that could apply to their diverse books.

We started with discussion questions that would lead to reader response. They started as generalized book questions and as the list grew, it made sense to turn them into task cards. The literary analysis discussion deck came to life.

Students really used these questions to think more deeply about their texts which is what they had been struggling with prior to using the questions in the discussion deck. Additionally, even though we used the questions daily, it didn’t feel repetitive because there was so much variety in how we used them.

Discussion Deck: The Essential Discussion Questions for Book Clubs

So at its core, the Literary Analysis Discussion Deck is made up of 40 book club discussion topics that can be used for most texts. The beauty of this set is that it is super versatile in its classroom usage.

They work for small groups as well as full class. And they work for writing, discussion and more creative tasks.

How to create a discussion deck for regular and varied literature discussions in high school English.

How to Create Your Own Discussion Deck

If you want to develop your own set of discussion questions for book club in the form of a discussion deck, you should start by considering patterns that you as a teacher recognize in literature. Think about characters, names, weather, setting, conflicts, shifts and then formulate open ended questions.

As you develop you discussion deck, be sure to keep the questions open enough that it can apply to most texts. Obviously, there are some questions that just will not work with a particular texts. When that happens, I just tell my students to skip it and move on to the next one.

Want to try it? Grab a set for 4 cards for free!

Use the Discussion Deck for Full Class Activities

I do a lot with standards based grading in my class. During our spring book club unit, I wanted to assess a particular skill. I found a question from the discussion deck, posted it to a slide and then all the students wrote double entry journals on that particular discussion question for book clubs.

It was a great way to assess their thinking about their books which addressing the AP® Literature Essential Skill. It was quick for them to write and then allowed us to also focus on some writing skills.

Later they used their thinking in their double entry journals for the basis of their small group discussion. (For more on using double entry or dialectic journals, be sure to check out: Teaching Students How to Write Amazing Double Entry Journals and 11 Brilliant Strategies for Dialectic Journals to Better Close Reading)

For book club discussion and beyond, try discussion questions for high school book clubs in a discussion deck.

Discussion Questions for Book Club using Discussion Decks

The discussion deck was probably the greatest win I had this spring. We used them throughout our book club unit (about 3 weeks), but we also used them with the poetry we were using to ground our book club unit and with short stories. I even used them for quick assessments in my AP® Language class.

I can’t wait to start using them immediately in the fall. They will pair nicely with my Flash Fiction Boot Camp. (For more, check out this post.)