Get Started with School Counseling Book Clubs

I often work with our ELL students in school counseling book clubs, and we read Save Me A Seat by Sarah Weeks. When Ravi, a new student from India, moves to school, he struggles to navigate middle school and quickly tries to befriend the school bully. Joe, a student with APD, is struggling with his own middle school woes - his mom is a cafeteria worker. There are so many opportunities for ELL students, new students, and students with special needs to make connections.

Chapter books are great, but consider asking how long it will take to finish. When I use chapter books, I have to plan for several months and sometimes even a semester of sessions, due to the length of the book, sessions, and time it takes us to reflect and connect.

I also set aside a few minutes at the start of our club meeting to review what we read last time. Consider creating a group routine to help you manage your time if you are using longer chapter books.

During April and May, I use American Girl’s Guide To Starting Middle School for a much shorter school counseling book club. I let the students pick a chapter at the start (or end) of each session to read and discuss. Allowing them to focus on what is personally meaningful means I can conduct a much shorter small group than if we read the entire book.

I do a lot of lunch bunch groups, which we all know is a struggle. Eating, reading, following along, discussing- wait, are you eating? It’s a lot to juggle. Since our school counseling book clubs have a reading/academic focus, I’ve been able to get buy-in from teachers to use other times of the day. For example, during our intervention time is a great time to pull students who don’t receive a specific tiered service.

If you are struggling for time, consider a less formal book club with more of a class feel. In years past, I have invited my fourth- and fifth-grade girls to a girls-only book club. We either met in my room or I borrowed a teacher's classroom during lunch and read An American Girl: Chrissa Stands Strong. I read aloud from my copy as they ate, and we found times to “turn and talk” to make connections and share opinions. At the end of the book, we celebrated by watching the movie.

There are some amazing online book study guides, and I used to use them all the time. As much as I loved having great data and activities to show their comprehension and connections, I found that not only did paper activities eat up our time, but the students also didn’t enjoy the group as much. Seeing me is a time in their day when they can finally put down their pencils, so now we focus on games and discussions.