How can a book club be started? A teacher should introduce the idea of a book club in a ‘show and tell’ session with exciting books. Children should then be told how a book club works and they should be involved in putting the club together by choosing; buying the books; reading the books and even talking about them at club meetings. The teacher will have to help the children with the running of the club meetings, the arrangement of meeting times and places, and the teacher would definitely need to attend all the meetings until the children can manage on their own.
In running the book club, children should help make the club rules, share their own books, and brainstorm ideas for raising money to buy books and run the club. The club might also make outings to libraries or movies, collect articles as well as books, and try to give each member a responsibility in the book club’s affairs.
As for rules, teachers need to help the children decide on book club rules. The children will also need guidance on how to talk freely and openly about why they have or haven’t enjoyed a book and what they want to tell their friends about it. There need to be rules for returning and caring for books, regular attendance, book storage, proceedings for meetings, and so on.
Book selection is up to the members, but the teacher must help in this. A good place to start would be the CNA book titles list, found in the CNA Readathon 2011 Teacher’s Handbook and is also available on the websites of READ and CNA. The list is long, and it includes Nelson Mandela’s Favourite Folk Tales, The Kite Runner, The Lord of the Rings, Spud, and many more popular titles.
This year the campaign brings an exciting challenge to both primary and high schools – The CNA 2011 Book Club Awards. Schools will have to submit evidence, showing how their book clubs have encouraged the enjoyment of reading. All grades within each school have to provide a collaborate submission and entries close 31 March 2012.
One of the CNA Readathon 2011 ambassadors, Khabonina Qubeka, is also participating in the book club initiative by contributing her time and energy in the creation of these much needed book clubs in schools. Khabonina is an actress, dancer, musician and motivational speaker and agrees that ‘A house without books is like a room without windows.’
With her support of this year’s CNA Readathon Campaign, Khabonina believes that all our valued contributions will go a long way in helping to lift the curtain on illiteracy and will make a difference in developing a culture of reading everywhere in the sure knowledge that our future depends on it.