hink about why you're setting up the Group. This will help you to know who to ask, what books to read and how to plan for the sessions.

Sell it! It is worthwhile!! (If teachers don't have a good knowledge of children's books and how to use them in the classroom, then how on earth can they teach using them, not to mention knowing which books to recommend children to read?!).

Some things to think about:

Support

The first stage is to get support/agreement from the senior management team. It is much easier to organise and sustain when it is a whole school commitment.

Time

It is often easier to decide on a fixed length of time for the Group, to allow for ease of organisation and future flexibility e.g a year.

Organisation

The more you can fix at the outset (dates, time, venue, people) the less on-going organisation there will be.

Venue

Find a venue (e.g. staff room, library, local café etc).

Time

Decide a regular time (upto an hour) at a time of day which is convenient. Building in some as staff meetings over the year can ease the load.

When?

Decide how often the group will meet (giving enough time to read the book, but not so long that it loses momentum.) Advice would be one book per half term, giving teachers the holiday to read it.

Choice of books

Agree the choice of books (e.g. using the suggested lists on the tales on moon lane website: talesonmoonlane.co.uk /children's literature websites). You might decide to choose a variety of books over the year, just stick longer novels or to have two each time (one picture book and one novel).

Buying books

It is important to have obtained multiple copies of the next book to give out at the meeting and people then pay you. The other option is to buy copies as group reading sets for the school and lend them to teachers. This not only keeps your library up to date but enables teachers to use the books straight away with their classes.

Facilitating the group

As the group facilitator read the book quite carefully (often easier to read it twice!), and prepare some key questions to stimulate discussion. Post-it noting key pages can be really helpful.

Spend a short time reading around the book (eg. interviews with the author from the web; recent reviews; other books by the same author) Do as much or as little as you have time for.

During the session don't feel the pressure to talk all the time. Encourage dialogue.

Make it as informal as possible (food and drink always helps!), while still retaining a meaty discussion.

A teachers' reading group will impact on motivation, inspiration and quality of work of the teachers and children! It is worth pushing through the very valid ‘we're already overloaded' argument. Making it a priority is worth it. You'll be amazed!!

Key Questions

What are your initial responses? (likes, dislikes) Why? How quickly did you read it? Could you put it down? Did you think you'd enjoy it? Were you surprised?

Synopsis:

What happened? What was the most exciting part? What was the problem? How was it resolved?

Structure:

How was the book structured? What patterns did you notice? Was the pace fast/slow? How was this created? Were there chapters? What was the effect of this?

Themes and Issues?

What themes/issues did the book raise? How were they approached? Did the book/author hold a message? Can we learn anything from it?

Characters:

Did you believe in the characters? Which? Why? How were they developed? Did they surprise you at any point? Could you/the children relate to any of them? How did they change/develop as the story unfolded? Which character did you like best/least? Why?

Style:

What particular stylistic devices struck you? (e.g. effective descriptive passages; techniques used to draw the reader in; particularly effective images; sentence structures which are effective e.g. repetition etc)

Were there any words/phrases/images/sentences/passages which were particularly effective? Which? Why?

Application:

How would you use the book with the class?

What extended writing opportunities could the book stimulate? What drama activities would support this?

Links:

What other books did this remind you of? Why?

Which other books by this author have you read? Recommend? Comparisons?

General:

Anything else? What questions haven't we asked yet that you would like to discuss? Final thoughts?

Suggested texts:

If you involve the whole staff, including TA's, you might want to use a variety of novels and picture books. Pick and choose!! Just so that you have them now, the texts we're going to suggest you choose from are:

Key Stage 1
"Beegu" by A.Deacon.
"The Princess and the Pea" by Mini Grey.
"Man on the Moon" by S. Bartram.
"The Conquerors" by D.McKee.
"Into the Forest" by Anthony Browne.
"Wolves" by E.Gravett.

Year 3/4
"Cloud Busting" by Malorie Blackman.
"Varjak Paw" by S.Said.
"The Night of the Unicorn" by Jenny Nimmo.
"Spy Dog" by A.Cope.
"Sideways Stories from Wayside School" by L.Sacher.
"Girl Wonder" by Malorie Blackman.

Year 5/6
"The Sleeping Sword" by M. Morpurgo.
"Wolf Brother" by Michelle Paver.
"There's a Boy in the Girl's Bathroom" by L.Sacher.
"The Other Side of Truth" by Beverley Naidoo.
"Jake's Tower" by Elizabeth Laird.
"Silverfin" by C.Higson.