Discussion About Leading a Discussion

It can be intimidating for a non-teacher to lead one of these summer reading book discussion groups. Many of us don't regularly interact with high school-age students. Not only won't we know any of the students in our group, we won't know anything about them and their interests until we are in the room with them. We will have less than an hour with them, and then the discussion will be over. (In short, we will have no clue until the need for clues is over.) This will be my fourth year as a summer reading book discussion leader. One of my discussions (the first one) bombed, one of them went well, one was a stunning success, and I have high hopes for the 2007 group. (I would list my very first tip as Sign up for the Harry Potter discussion group, but I have already taken that advice myself.)

I am going to list a few tips I've found helpful. I hope other people will add their tips to the list.

1) Consider leading the group with another person. If you are reluctant to volunteer for this activity, ask Mary Saunders if you can sit in on someone else's group to see how things go. Even if you feel comfortable enough to lead a group by yourself, it's helpful to have a another voice and another point of view to ease the moments when you've asked all your prepared questions and wonder what you're going to do next.

2) (This probably goes without saying, but...) Read the book. If you read it years ago, re-read it. I find it helpful to take chapter by chapter notes so I can refer back to something I have a question or comment about. I also like to keep notes on the characters' names and ages and their relationships to each other, especially if it's a book with a lot of characters with names I find difficult to remember.

3) Get reviews and background information from the internet. If the book is one in a series, print out precis of the books that came before. Professional reviews are good, but I also print out reader reviews from sites like Amazon.com. I pay special attention to negative reviews because they can be used to jumpstart a discussion (See #7 )

4) Take a few minutes to set things up at the beginning of the session. If you want the students to sit in a circle (I prefer that they do), ask them to rearrange the chairs.

5) Don't concern yourself with administrative/authority issues. If the students were supposed to write a set of questions about the book and you see that several of them are busily finishing their questions in the back of the room, let it go, let it go, let it go.... However, it is helpful to collect the questions from the students who have done them because they provide a good safety net if you run through all the questions you've prepared.

6) Have a list of open-ended questions. What did you like most about this book? What did you like least? What would you have done if you were the protagonist? Do you think the actions were realistic? Would you recommend this book? To other students? To your parents? Would you recommend keeping it on the reading list? Are you happy you chose this book instead of one of the others on the list? If there was something you didn't like about this book, in what way would you change it? Would you like to read a sequel?

7) Use the reviews you have printed out to say things you might not want to present as your own opinion. Here's an example: In the book I led a discussion on last year, the bodies of two teenagers are occupied by the souls of two adults, and those two adults have sex. I was aware that a group of teenagers wasn't apt to discuss a sexual issue with an adult they don't know. It was helpful to step back personally and say, "One reviewer faulted the book for what he saw as sexual exploitation of teenagers by adults... What do you think of that criticism?"

8) Don't worry if some lines of discussion go nowhere. The question about sexual exploitation elicited only limited response from the group, I think, in part, because they didn't want to discuss sex and, in part, because it was a new idea. Ideas that don't catch fire in a discussion may well germinate later.

9) Trust the students. I have been blown away by some of the things students have seen in the books that I didn't see.

TO BE CONTINUED..... Please contribute tips and comments.